


Wandercraft

by Feydrian, Saronai, Telurin



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M, Fantasy, M/M, Multi, PTSD, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2018-12-22 17:15:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11971965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feydrian/pseuds/Feydrian, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saronai/pseuds/Saronai, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telurin/pseuds/Telurin
Summary: Rena is still finding her place in the world, Ehrendil is running from a vaguely-remembered past, and Tulosa is simply trying to hold it all together as he both evades and helps to undermine the Elune-based shadow cult who broke his mind in the first place.Primary setting is a kaldorei ship.  Go go high seas adventure!





	1. How to Tame Your Druid

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based off of some RP and written by two people. We collectively call ourselves Adrian Roan. Honestly, Azeroth is mostly used as a backdrop setting.
> 
> Old RP, formatted into a story and finally shared with the world. We write Rendilosa over so many universes now, included original fiction. I figured it was about time to share THE ORIGINAL (tm). The first few "chapters" are not explicit, sorry.
> 
> If you'd like to check out more of our work, including links and sneak peeks at our eventually edited original fics, or just see some things that inspire us, you can head over to our tumblr blog at [Beyond the Veil](http://adrianroan.tumblr.com/). Don't forget to click on the navigation button in the upper left corner for more links and information.  
> Similarly, Rendilosa, the ship in this particular fic, have their own inspiration blog on tumblr at [Wanderlust](http://rendilosa.tumblr.com).
> 
> *This work gets explicit and features a poly-amorous trio (RENawyn, EhrenDIL, and TulOSA; Rendilosa)  
> *Limited omni pov (tried to make it 3rd person limited but we have hundreds of pages of omni from back then so...omni it is)  
> *Past tense  
> *Named Wandercraft because our original fantasy work of this trio is titled Wanderlust, add that to Warcraft and you get...yeah. That.
> 
>  
> 
>   
> Left to Right: Tulosa, Renawyn, Ehrendil (art made by [Farseer Drijya](http://farseerdri.tumblr.com/))

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of Rendilosa. The very beginning. First meeting, first setting, first version. When Renawyn met Ehrendil and tried to unofficially tame him (he was a bear, okay, and she isn't even a hunter).

Out to sea more often than not, Renawyn nonetheless encountered all sorts of interesting types in Stormwind’s harbor, from goat-like aliens of another world (the draenei) to werewolves, correctly called _worgen,_ and more.  Not to mention she _worked_ alongside gnomes and dwarves for years before finding her way back aboard the Tal Shanre as ship’s engineer and one of McGullin’s archaeology diving experts.  Only one other human worked the ship, and their captain was kaldorei, a night elf with dusky-purple skin, long blue-black hair and pointed ears about as long as her forearm.  A kaldorei she absolutely did _not_ have a hopeless crush on.  Nope.  Not at all.  

Likewise, hunters who successfully tamed all manner of beasts, magical to the mundane, proliferated throughout most harbors, not just Stormwind.  Most of these animals, some of them taller than Rena, behaved better than people.   _This_ was her normal.

As such, when Rena spotted a poorly-looking bear with mud-streaked and roaned, teal fur alone by the lake, looking quite possibly _dead,_ she thought more of her concern for the animal than any potential danger.  The remains of a tattered harness marking him a former pet only encouraged her approach.   _Worse_ , the bear remained still and unmoving as she pulled her noisy mekgineer’s chopper to a stop nearby.

_Is it even alive?_ Rena’s brow furrowed as she cut the ignition and looked around the more scenic area of Stormwind for any possible hunters or stablemasters around.  There were people in the distance, a woman off fishing on the far side of the pond, people in the pumpkin farm down the gentle slope, but no one near the bear.  No one save her.

“Hey bear, you alright?”  She called in a soothing tone, taking a few cautious steps forward and wondering if maybe she should just let sleeping bears lie, as they say.  She knew engineering and ships, arc diving, not animals.   _You barely know what you’re doing with_ people, _much less animals,_ she reminded herself.

It was enough the bear finally pulled himself out of sleep, aware someone was talking, specifically, to him in that same choppy language they all spoke around here.  He wrinkled his nose at the smell of gas, snuffling and twitching an ear.

A wash of relief flowed through Rena.   _Looks a little too lean, but at least he’s alive…._ It was spring, so perhaps he hibernated?   _Do tamed bears still hibernate?_ “Hey there,” she repeated in soft tones, taking a few steps closer, sympathetic over his state of neglect.

The bear twitched his nose and cracked an eye open, peering over at the pale and freckled human with her orangey-red hair.  He blinked sleepily, then sighed heavily.

A weary sigh.

Rena gave him a sympathetic sound and took a few more steps.  “Poor thing, side of the road isn’t really a good place for a nap, y’know?”

More words the bear didn't comprehend.  He lifted his head for a better look at her, blinking away sleep.

She studied him in turn, his eyes aglow with an amber light not unlike the beautiful spirit beasts she saw some hunters with.  Not your normal bear, tamed or otherwise.  Of course, his fur already gave that away.

“Are you hungry?”  Rena asked , staying the last few feet away.

The bear propped himself up on his forepaws, rubbing one across his muzzle, then yawned. The display showcased his sharp, white teeth and a long tongue.  Despite this lazy response, she intrigued him, called forth the ghost of deeper thoughts.

Rena peered around again, but no one took an interest in either of them, no one at all catching up to figure out why she bothered their severely neglected bear.  “Hang on,” she said, leaving the bear to cock his head at her while she returned to her bike, digging in the heavy leather pack loaded on the back.  She fished out some salmon jerky.  “Hungry?” She asked again, holding it up this time as she approached.

The bear’s nose twitched immediately, catching the scent, ears perked forward with keen interest.  Heaving himself up on all four paws, he ambled toward her, equally cautious and surprisingly gentle as he took the fish from her fingers.

Renawyn smiled, a little nervous over the size of the bear so close, but stood her ground.  "You're a sweet thing hm?"  She smiled cheerfully, eyeing the tattered bits of leather harness.  Her smile faltered on it.  "Someone abandon you here?"  She pulled out another stick of jerky and held it out to the bear, reaching up to scratch behind one ear as he accepted the fish.

When he shied away, Rena immediately withdrew the offending hand, rather than press the issue.  “Sorry.”

Undeterred in general, and still close enough, he took the second piece just as gently as the first, and licked her hand after swallowing it, sitting back down. 

Rena giggled and wiped her hand on her pants.  "Still hungry?"  Walking back over to her bike, she hopped over the fence hedging the road rather than go around it where she parked.  She pulled out more fish, making a display of the process for her new friend, and set it on the ground a few feet from her bike, on that side of the fence.  “Off the road, okay?”

The bear huffed at her, but followed readily enough.

The closer proximity afforded her a better look at the tattered bits of leather, enough to tell it was once a much fancier harness, embroidered with kaldorei designs.  “Maybe an elf had you before?”  She mused aloud and tentatively moved closer, hoping to make sure none of it had grown too tight, cutting off his circulation.  

Just in case his previous owner really had been kaldorei, she switched languages, having learned Darnassian over a decade earlier.  She gave the bear her best encouraging smile.  “It's okay, I'm a friend.”

The bear tilted his head in sudden recognition of the words, jump-starting more concrete thoughts of his own.  It resulted in an expression of ursine confusion Rena picked up on.  Distracted by processing those words, he let her touch the leather, which looked exactly like the dried remains of a harness.  Stiff, but not tight. 

Renawyn pulled another bit of fish from her pouch, using it as bait to get a better grasp on the harness, thinking to free him of the tattered thing just in case.

While the bear sniffed the piece of fish, she only got halfway through undoing the first buckle before he made a bearlike snort of surprise.  In one fluid motion, he pulled away, eyes wide as he lost his balance and fell backwards on two legs, startled into his long-underused kaldorei form and landing in a heap at her feet. Before he could fall flat on his back, he caught himself on his hands and looked up at her with a shocked and open expression. 

Rena blushed a bright red, equally wide-eyed and no less stunned.  The kaldorei was very similar to the bear, lean and somber. The bits of harness comprised his outfit, rather tattered and barely decent.  While his skin was a sun-kissed shade of purple, different from the bear’s coloring, his head of messy curls held the same roaned-teal shade of his fur.

The fish dangled untouched between them as Rena stood completely and utterly still for several moments.  Slowly, she looked down at the fish and then back up at the elf, blushing even harder.  "Oh..."

Neither said anything more for the moments her embarrassment climbed nearer to panic.  She'd _known_ the kaldorei druids commonly shifted into bears but she'd never actually _met_ one before.  Also, they supposedly shifted clothes into fur and back and she'd never seen any kaldorei looking so much like an abandoned animal so far from home.  All of this contributed to her never even guessing he might be more than an animal.  

Also, again, barely decent.

Finally, she recovered enough for more words, “Oh...I'm _SO_ sorry.”  Then, remembering how he'd _not_ reacted to common before, switched back to Darnassian.  “I'm sorry.”

Similarly to the bear, the man tilted his head at her, and offered a somewhat forced and uncertain smile, hoping she took it as friendly and polite as he meant it. 

The result looked a little off instead.  In the next moment, he focused on the fish still dangling between them. 

Renawyn followed his gaze, staring at the fish now as well.  "You...still want the fish?"  She smiled nervously, the heat of her blush permanently claiming her cheeks.

He leaned forward again, pushing off his hands and reached one toward Renawyn and the fish. "...Please?" his voice cracked with disuse. He paused, grasping for words. "It was tasty." 

Rena giggled happily at the puppy-like innocence of it and put the fish back in her pouch, unshouldering it.  "Sure.  You can have them all if you like."  She held the small leather shoulder bag out to him.

Long and tapered ears set in an uncertain bend, the kaldorei looked at the bag, then Rena before taking it.  Once he grasped the pack, he backed up and leaned against the stone wall, legs curled protectively around his prize. He kept an eye on Rena as well. 

She smiled back at him, the blush fading a little, and tilted her head to one side.  "I have water too.  Those are pretty salty, y’know..."  She turned away and retrieved a flask from her chopper, then approached just close enough to hold it out to him.  "Here ya go."

The kaldorei’s ears perked forward as he licked his fingers, and took the water. In the next moment his ears settled on uncertain again, expression confused.  "Why?" He touched his own face after, indicating her blush. 

Rena shook her head, thinking the gesture over his cheek meant something, but unsure just _what_ he meant by it.  Instead of responding immediately, she pulled a second flask from the small holster-pack strapped to her leg.  "Because you might be thirsty, y’know?"  She took a drink from her flask in illustration.

Ears down, the kaldorei frowned and shook his head. "No. Why..." he trailed off again, touching his face, and then gestured at hers. "Red." 

“Oh.”  She only blushed darker now as she looked away, shifting her weight.  “Well...I did just try and remove your uh…”   _What little clothes you’re actually wearing._ She fidgeted, almost too flustered to finish.  “Harness...thing.  But I really thought you were a bear, y’know?”

The kaldorei grinned, amused by her answer. "I was a bear." He held out a hand to her in supplication. 

Looking over at him, Renawyn giggled, "Yeah, guess you were."  She smiled bright, then looked down at his hand and over at the bag of fish jerky he still had.  "You need help up?"  She reached for his hand.

Instead of leveraging himself up, the kaldorei wrapped long fingers around her hand and tugged gently, attempting to pull her down next to him without overbalancing her and pulling her on top of him. 

Renawyn made a small oh of surprise.  "Um...okay."  She couldn't possibly blush further as she settled down next to him against the wall.

As soon as she followed his gentle tug, he let go, content. His attention back on the bag, he fished another piece of jerky out of it.  “You’re nice. Not many are, here.”

Smiling over at him again, she shifted her weight until she sat cross-legged.  "You just haven't met the right people then.  But...I guess a lot of them get preoccupied with their own problems.  No one hurt you did they?"  She looked him over again with some concern.

The kaldorei shook his head. "Not hurt." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Tame, yes. A wolf girl tried." He wrinkled his nose, then chuckled. "Did not go well." 

Renawyn thought about that for a moment, piecing together his stilted Darnassian.  "A worgen tried taming you?"  She giggled, uncertain about the conclusion.  "Guess I'm not the only one."  Not that she’d _tried_ taming him, especially not with the natural pull a hunter would have on random animals.

The kaldorei smiled at her, amused again, mostly by her ongoing blush. "You were better at it." The longer he spoke with her, the more vocabulary tumbled loose in his mind.  Already he managed a complete sentence.  The words certainly came easier now. 

Smiling sheepishly at her hands in her lap, she fidgeted with her flask.  "Well, McGullin makes a mean salmon jerky.  I can't take all the credit, y'know?"  She snuck a peek at him and looked away as quickly, picking at her sleeves.  When he reached over and covered the offending hand, her heart skipped a beat. 

"She and you have my thanks."

His gaze still on her hands when she looked up, Rena looked down as well, watching his hand settle over hers.  The heat in her cheeks renewed.  "Not at all, don't mention it."

The kaldorei took his hand back, and in a decisive way, set the bag of fish aside, stretching out his legs.  

They sat in silence for only a few moments before Rena spoke up again.  “So...did you just take a ship in from Darnassus?”

He  nodded. "I needed....a change?" His ears twitched as a bird flit by. "Been a bear a long time. Too long." 

Watching him steadily relax put Rena more at ease as well.  "And do you like it here?"  She picked her water back up and took a drink.

The kaldorei shrugged, ears set low again, telegraphing his emotions. "It's loud, with many people. Too many." He put extra care into his words.  “I had to get away for a bit.”

Rena nodded, glancing over at her chopper with a brief frown.  "And then I came along with my loud machine disturbing your nap."  She smiled sheepishly over at him.  "Sorry."

He followed her glance at the chopper in question and nodded. "I have seen these before. A saber- a horse is better, I think. My own feet, the best." 

She smiled again.  "Well, it might surprise you to know, but I don't handle animals so well.  Besides, I built that machine with my own two hands, y'know?"  She smiled brighter as Glitchy, her mechanical squirrel, poked his head out of one of the bags on the chopper and watched them.

The kaldorei smiled faintly at her words. "You do well with druids." He glanced back at her. "This bear is certainly proof. Animals are easy, for those who listen." 

Renawyn laughed, short and wry.  "I do even worse with druids...well...most druids.”  She smiled shyly over at him.  It was more assumption than fact, given her love of machinery and engineering, commonly seen at odds with the more nature-loving kaldorei.

It earned her a surprised expression before the kaldorei frowned and then sighed. "Common, that." 

_Common?_ She frowned as well, searching her memory.  She may not be around druids often, but she’d spent more time among kaldorei and dwarves than her own kind.  Vaguely, she recalled hearing about the more feral druids, particularly in connection with the worgen.  Supposedly giving in to the animal spirit was frowned on, the lack of control considered inferior.  This particular kaldorei admitted he’d been a bear a long time.   _Too long._

Rena gave him a sympathetic smile, placing a consoling hand on his shoulder at the sad tone in his voice.  "It'll be okay now though.  I'll help you."  She smiled brightly over at him, tilting her head to one side.

The muscles tensed under her hand, quite aware now that such things weren't free. "You have," he said. 

She removed her hand with another flush of heat in her cheeks.  “Well, I'll continue, then.  Do you have a place to go, out of the rain?  And I can bring fish by every day, if you like.  I work on a ship, it's easy enough, y'know?”

The kaldorei blinked at her, ears giving away his uncertainty again. "There are some caves in the hills to the west. They serve well if I want to keep dry." 

“Well...I've never been a bear, but I thought a nice warm bed might be better on a rainy night.”  She hoped her smile didn’t look too sad for him.

For the first time since shifting, the kaldorei colored, cheekbones flushing a darker purple as his attention snapped up on her face.   _She couldn't mean…?_ In the next moment he looked away, swallowing.

Even so, it took Rena a moment to catch her own subtext at first, too concerned, then confused, and now _incredibly_ awkward.  Her cheeks burned.  "No, no, I meant I'd get you a room at the inn, y'know?  I wouldn't...not just like that anyway...and my bed's too small--I don't even know your name!"  Rena cut short her rambled panic.

_Good question._  It took him several moments before _he_ remembered.  "Ehrendil."  The kaldorei stammered out, still not looking at her.  His left ear, the one closest to her, cocked toward her. "And I could not...a room costs coin, surely. More than fish. More than I have, now." 

Rena settled into a quiet, flustered blush staring firmly at her hands.  After a deep breath, she laughed a little, noticeably pitched a little high from nerves.  "It does...maybe...I could hire you for some work if that makes you feel better?  I mean...the money really isn't an issue, not for me.  My job pays me more than I need.”

Ehrendil looked over at her, a slow smile spreading on his lips. "For? I do not know ships. Bears do not swim the seas."

“I don't know?  Official fish quality testing?”  Rena gave him a little smile.

Ehrendil frowned at her, wiping it quickly off her face. "Not a real job," he said.

She mirrored his expression when she glanced over at him and cleared her throat, only then looking away.  "You look strong...don't have to know anything about the seas to load and unload supplies...and I had a really hard time lifting the equipment today when everyone else was off enjoying shore leave….”

Looking more satisfied at this answer, Ehrendil nodded. "Better. That, I can do." 

“I know people with a saber farm too...they might be looking for a new stablehand and I'm sure they'd give you a nice place and some food too.  But it's kinda late to ask them tonight, y'know?”

Ehrendil shook his head. "I do not want to be with other Kaldorei, not yet." 

“Oh….  Well...my cap'n’s kaldorei...and a few of the crew...but they're all nice, y'know?  Cap'n Tully took me in when I was just a stowaway, got me all the training I need.  They aren't nearly as closed off as other kaldorei, but you won't have to deal with them much since I hired you, okay?”  Pushing up on her feet, she offered her hand again.  “I’ll show you around and get you a room near the docks.”

Ehrendil stood as well, though the mention of other Kaldorei left him uneasy. "Alright." 


	2. A Tale of Two Rens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Renawyn picks up Ehrendil for his first day of work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second RP scene restructured into prose format over two years later.

Arriving fairly early at the little cabin she secured for Ehrendil, Rena knocked on the door.  He was late, though she hadn’t _really_ expected him to be the best employee.  Honestly, she’d only hired him because he seemed dissatisfied with free meals and a bed.  Captain Tulosa was much better at getting people to accept a hand up.  The man could probably live off favors owed.  Rena was more likely to end up a doormat, so it was probably just as well Ehrendil wanted to _work_ for what she offered.

She also didn’t think he’d be happy to find out she’d made do without him this morning rather than wake him from his first night in a real bed in what was probably too long.  "Ehrendil, you in there still?"  She called out.

While Ehrendil stirred fitfully at the noise, he barely woke from it, responding with incoherent mumbles.  He settled back into dozing pretty much immediately.

Rena knocked again, just in case he’d been mostly asleep and now listened for what might have woken him.  "Outta bed sleepy-head"  The old common phrase barely worked in Darnassian, but she said it anyway.

Ehrendil cracked an eye open, and sat up. His bleary gaze searched the small, unfamiliar cabin, dimly lit from sunlight shining through the one window.  Sighing heavily, as if he was still a bear, he stumbled out of bed and walked to the door.  He’d washed up the night before.  Now, he simply rubbed his eyes and pushed his mess of curls out of the way. When he cracked open the door, a small human woman in funny-looking goggles stood on the other side, attention called away by distant shouting.  He leaned against the doorframe with a yawn. “Yes?”

“Good morning!” Rena said in cheery tones, unaware she hadn’t been recognized in her work gear.  Work entirely fled her mind when she _looked_ at him.  Already taller than her, the bottom stoop placed her gaze at hip-level with the kaldorei…who answered the door _naked._ Mouth slightly ajar before her face found three shades of red, Rena simply stared at first, brain broken until she gave an embarrassing little squeak and turned her back on him.  “Um...people generally don't...that is…”  Renawyn fidgeted with the edge of her riding gloves, voice high with flustered panic.

Silence followed, tickling curiosity at her back, but she steadfastly refused to peek.  She thought he might still be half-asleep.  Only then did it occur to her he might not recognize her in work gear.  Hastily, she shoved the engineering goggles up into her hair, making the shorter wisps in front stick up at odd angles.

Ehrendil finally recognized her regardless.  The human woman who was kind enough to feed him and rent him this place.  He frowned that she’d turned away from him, but guessed why in the next moment, given her frequent blushing.  Now, he chuckled. "Ah.  I don’t mind you looking.  But it bothers you. One moment." 

He turned to go back into the room, leaving the door ajar, while hunting for his pants. 

After only a few moment’s searching, he found them kicked at the end of the bed, tangled with the covers and hopped into them, still a bit unbalanced from just waking up. 

Waiting in embarrassed silence, Rena finally found the words for a little self-defense, forgetting he said he didn’t mind.  "I wasn't looking, y’know...I mean, well, I couldn't help it..."  she trailed off, mumble-rambling about the situation.

Ehrendil smiled at her as he wandered back over to the door, reaching for her hand when she looked over her shoulder at his approach.  He beckoned her in. "Please. I told you, don’t mind. Don’t be bothered." 

“Well, it was kinda just _right there,_ ” she said anyway, gesturing at the air in front of her face as he pulled gently at one of her arms to get her to turn around.  She looked up firmly at his face this time as she stepped up on the top stair with him.

“Couldn’t sleep any other way. I tried, but….”

“No, it's okay I...uh...maybe just don't answer the door that way.”  Rena tried her best smile, face still thoroughly aflame.

Ehrendil shrugged. "I didn't intend to make you...uncomfortable."  He finished pulling her into the room before releasing her, and went back to his rumpled bed, sitting back down in the mess he'd made of the blankets. 

Renawyn fidgeted, not looking at him, looking everywhere around the room but at the bed.  "So...did you sleep better?"

Ehrendil rummaged around in the blankets, looking for the rest of his clothes, such as they were. He found his belt among the blankets, his harness half hidden under the bed. "Once I did sleep, yes. It was kind of you, I do not recall the last time I slept in a bed." 

_I should get him some new clothes too._ Renawyn nodded, finally glancing over at him.  "My pleasure."  She forced another nervous smile.  "I just...you seemed pretty insistent about payback, so I came to get you for work."

Ehrendil already put his belt on, and decided against anything more, apparently deciding that was enough clothing for now. "Yes, as you can see, I am now ready. What do you require of me?" 

Renawyn forgot why she was even here and it showed as words failed her.

Ehrendil crossed his legs on the bed, waiting for her answer. When it is apparent she's not going to answer anytime soon, he stretches, hands above his head. "If it's going to be awhile...." He trailed off with a yawn. 

Renawyn blushed.  "Right, sorry.  I kinda forgot."   _Sudden naked guy at the door’ll do that to a girl._ She rubbed at the back of her neck.  "I just needed help with the equipment, you know...but if you still need sleep, it can keep until later."

“I don't *need* to sleep….”  Ehrendil smirked.  "Though I admit it was nice." He stood, and gestured to the door. "Lead on, _Shana."_  

She only blushed harder at getting called the Darnassian equivalent of Lady and waved a dismissive hand at the air between them.  "Just Rena's fine, you know?"

“I did not know your name before now.”

“Oh...right.  Sorry.  It's Renawyn.  But Rena, or even just Ren are good too.”  She gave him a sheepish smile for having not introduced herself properly all of yesterday.

"Renawyn,"  Ehrendil said her name as if testing it on his tongue. “I think I can remember that.” 

He said, mildly amused. 

She furrowed her brow a little, curious now. "What?"  She obviously missed some sort of joke.

Ehrendil smiled faintly. _"Ren_ awyn? Eh _ren_ dil?" He stressed the 'ren’ in each of their names. "Very similar." 

“Oh!”  She giggled now.  "We're both Rens."

Ehrendil nodded. "We are. How will anyone tell us apart?" he said dryly. 

Renawyn blushed, having a pretty good idea about _that_.

“...Are you well, Renawyn? You seem flushed.”

Renawyn blushed harder.  "I'm fine, really."

Ehrendil hummed, and she thought there _might_ be a slight gleam of mischievousness in his eyes as he continued, though his tone was still even and a touch concerned. "Are you sure? I do know some healing techniques..." 

“I...just need some fresh air, I think.  It's really warm in here, y'know?”  Renawyn gave him a nervous smile as she tried playing along, but also turned for the door.

Ehrendil only flicked an ear and tilted his head at her before he followed her out the door. 

She stopped near her chopper.  “So...you heal too?

In the process of taming his barely-long-enough hair into a tail using a bit of leather as a tie, Ehrendil gave her a rueful look, ears down again. "Not enough to claim the title. You do not want me healing anything major."

“Could still prove useful if you'd rather do a little of that while moving supplies and equipment about.”

Ehrendil  flicked an ear at her. "You have need of a healer after all? I do not think ..." he seemed to be searching for the words he wanted, before he settled on "It must be dire, before I was pressed into service as a healer." 

“No no, just other work opportunities if you like, you know?  Don't want you to feel tied down to one thing.”

The kaldorei shrugged. "Do you doubt my abilities to lift heavy things? I will do what you need done." 

Renawyn looked him over quietly for a few moments then realized she was staring again.  Her blush renewed before having fully faded.  "Nope. Don't doubt it at all.  Just...well, you're use to being a bear, y'know.  I don't want you to feel like your freedom's gone."

Ehrendil smiled. "It is no hardship," he said airly. "It will be good, I feel, to do something physical with *this* form, rather than the bear’s."

Renawyn blushed further on the thoughts conjured forth by the word _physical_ paired with the way he answered the door.  Completely unprofessional.  "Yes, well, come on then, Ren-2.  Let's go see if we can pass for twins."  She giggled and climbed aboard her chopper, kicking down the side car.

Ehrendil’s smiled turned uncertain as he gave the machine an uneasy look-over.  Cautiously, he climbed into the passenger seat.  His own two feet _absolutely_ would have been better.  By the time they arrived at the ship, the kaldorei had a white-knuckled grip on the front of the side car, only too eager to clamber out of it.  

After she gave him a brief tour of the ship, crew still away on shore leave, they did real work.  However, Rena found he proved a frequent distraction from her pile of engineering parts and diving equipment.  She was _so_ getting teased for hiring her own private deckhand, sweaty and shirtless and beautiful.


	3. Day Off Payback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's everyone's day off, but Ehrendil misses the memo and Rena's just having an off day in general. More full frontal nudity (thus payback), but still not explicit. It'll get there, promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pizza and the delivery of it is totally a thing in Azeroth, promise. This is a serious work and we wouldn't just make things up!

Perfect weather for a rainy mood.  Sunny.  A beautiful day, really, not too warm, not too bright.  Perfect picnic weather.  Rena sat cross-legged on the upper deck, banging away at some engineered diving equipment instead.

They’d been in port a few weeks now and Rena had nothing but failed attempts at any _real_ connections.  Surface connections only.  Give her any group and she’d get stuck on the fringes, trying to figure out how to connect.  How to not be _weird._ Or at least how to not be _awkward_ about it. 

It made her excellent at helping others feel welcome, finding that lonely person looking in from the outside.  She thought she might’ve made a close friend with one of them, but he went back to his training with a nice goodbye letter.  Yesterday.

She couldn’t even figure out how to connect with the rest of her old crew.  At least McGullin had stopped treating her like a kid once she'd proved herself on the first dive back.

She _really super duper_ wished that psychic in the last port had never conjured a vision of her alternate timeline, possibilities that _could be_ in this one.  Rena had just been looking for family connections, what she got was an eyeful of Captain Tully--yeah.  And now she was blushing furiously again, a nervous wreck every time they were alone together.

Then you had Ehrendil, sweet as any puppy and equally as nerve-wracking as the captain in that so-not-innocent way.  She kept it more professional, at least, once he started working for her.  

She just didn’t know how to interact off the job without feeling like a pathetic tag-along.  The one no one really wanted around to begin with.   

Deep in her own thoughts, she entirely missed the moment Ehrendil walked up the boarding plank to the mostly-empty ship.

The kaldorei furrowed his brows at the unexpected lack of people.  However, the bang of metal-on-metal from Rena’s work on the upper deck, caught his attention.  Rather than using the stairs, he reached up and grabbed the rigging for a more direct route.  Hauling himself onto the upper deck, he perched on the thicker rope, watching her frown at the pile of metal.  “Renawyn…?  Where is everyone?”

She paused with a wrench in one hand and wiped at her forehead with the other, smearing a bit of grease on her face in the process.  Trying for her usual energy, she gave Ehrendil a small smile.  "Oh.  Shore leave.  You didn't have to come work today...I left a message, y'know?"

Ehrendil flicked an ear, sheepish. "I...may have missed that."

Rena smiled back, gentle, but holding only about half her normal enthusiasm.  She thought it over a moment and then finished tightening the gear.  "I didn't think...and don't take this the wrong way, y'know...but can you read?"

Ehrendil gave her a slow smirk. "I can, actually. My higher faculties are returning faster than I thought."

"Good.  You learned pretty quick yesterday."  Rena smiled a bit more at him.  

The druid peered closer at the mess of equipment surrounding her. "Renawyn...if it's is everyone's day off, why are you here doing what looks, to me, to be work?"

Rena shrugged, forcing the smile this time.  "Helps me think.  Give my hands something to do.  Guess otherwise I'd just be staring up at the ceiling below deck.  This way I get something done, y'know?"

Ehrendil nodded, pensive. He fell quiet for some time, but eventually spoke again. "Is it something you want to talk about?"

Thumbing at her nose left yet another smear of engineering grease behind.  She shrugged, tightening more bolts and gears, before sneaking a peek up at him.  She wanted people smiling, not feeling sorry for her.  "Not sure there's a whole lot to talk about."  She said after a while.

The longer Ehrendil watched her, the more concerned he grew. Using the higher rope in his grasp, he pulled himself up and stood on the rigging, then stepped lightly to the deck. Once on solid ground, he dropped into his bear form and lumbered over, snuggling in behind her, each furry forearm on either side of her.  Once positioned, he placed his chin on her head.

Rena went absolutely still as he moved around her, closer, blushing again by the time he settled in.  After a few moments of stiff silence she relaxed back against him and pet one of his furry arms.  "Thanks." Rena frowned at the smear of grease her touch left behind in his fur.  Leaning forward just enough, she grabbed her towel and wiped his paw off. “Sorry.”

Ehrendil looked at the grease on his paw and then nosed her hair with short snuffs that sounded enough like laughter Rena couldn’t help but smile again.  Until he left a good-sized cowlick (Bear-lick?) in her hair.

"Hey, you, it was an accident."  She half-giggled in protest.  "It's what you get for bear-hugging a grease monkey y'know?"  She used the towel to wipe off her own hands now.

With a pleased sigh, Ehrendil settled his chin back on her head, but only for the few short moments before she reached for another metal tool.  The druid huffed  - a cross between a sigh and a more aggressive threat call.  Using only one paw, he grabbed her about the middle and pulled her closer to him, _away_ from her equipment.

Rena squeaked in surprise, blushing at the sound before giggling.  "Okay, okay, I get the point.  No more work today."

Ehrendil warbled happily and let her go. 

Nothing to do with her hands, now, Rena fidgeted with the edge of her clothes, leaning back against the bear.  After several moments of just listening to the ocean waves crash around the ship and dock, she found herself idly petting his paw while lost in thought.  With a new blush of awareness she took back her hand.  "How long were you a bear, hm?"  She asked, quiet, probably a little too serious in the moment.

Comfortable with their position and not particularly interested in talking about it, Ehrendil shrugged and gave a bear’s sad warble this time.  

Rena pet his arm again, consoling him.  "Sorry."

Ehrendil nuzzled the side of her head and grunted in reassurance, sending warm air down her neck.

"That tickles, y'know?"  Rena bent her shoulder to her ear on that side and giggled.  

The druid huffed again in his bearish form of laughter. Nuzzling her head one last time, he stood and walked a few paces to the railing.  Turning and falling back into his true form at the same time, he lounged against the railing with his legs stretched out toward her

Rena had nuzzled back before she thought better of it and her smile was not quick enough to hide a brief look of disappointment after he moved away.  Nonetheless, she watched the fluid transition from bear to kaldorei with interest.  Shifting her own weight, she moved her legs off to one side, bent at the knee near his and leaned most of her weight on the opposite arm.

“Do you want me to leave? So you can be alone?”  Ehrendil studied her, wondering again at this new shift toward serious from her normally sunny mood.

Rena shook her head in a quick answer, though.  "No...I mean...unless you wanna go."  She looked away from him, watching another ship pull in.

He smiled at her quick answer. "Good...I don't know where I'd go if I you did."

Pulling her legs back under herself, Rena sat cross-legged again.  More for something to fidget with than any plans to start working, she picked up her arclight spanner and toyed around with it.  Smile shy, she looked back over at him, wondering if he might grumble about perceived work.  He wasn’t smiling any more, expression somber, like her own mood.  Probably her fault.  "Sorry I'm all low energy, I didn't get good sleep."

Ehrendil shrugged. "You don’t have to be bright eyed every day." He paused and tilted his head slightly. "Not sleeping well, or not getting enough sleep?"

“Maybe a little of both.” Her gaze flicked over to a clean cloth draped nearby on the equipment.  Getting to her knees for it, she turned away just long enough to grab it.

“...If you are unable to sleep on the ship, you are welcome to sleep in my bed. It is quite comfortable,”  Ehrendil said with complete earnesty, then added. "After all, it is your generosity I have it to begin with."

Rena blushed and nearly lost her balance mid-reach.  When the cloth came back with undeniable proof of grease stains, she frowned down at it.  Meanwhile, she found herself once again mulling over whether Ehrendil _knew_ what he was saying, just how serious he was if he _did know._ She twisted her lips off to one side and then smiled over her shoulder at him.  "People don't generally do that, y'know?"  She only blushed harder talking about it.

Ehrendil raised one long eyebrow. "Do what? Offer a nice _Shana_ a place to get away from her crewmates when they notice she’s upset?"

Rena looked away as she sat back down.   _Am I that transparent?_  "I think you're the only one who noticed, Dilly."  She laughed a little bit, the sound more tired than she’d like.  Pathetically lonely when so many people had it way worse.  Real, _actual_ problems.  She wrinkled her nose before smiling up at him.  

Ehrendil smiled back, just as faint. "They may not know how to help but to stay away."

“Think they’d be out for shore leave anyway.  Usually better after I spend a day on my own anyway, fixing things.”   _Not having to put on a brave and happy face for anyone._ Rena tried for a brighter smile as she sat cross-legged again.

Ehrendil nodded, looking down at his hands and going quiet.  His ears settled lower with his uncertainty.

Rena tilted her head to one side, crouching forward a little so she could look up at his face.  "Are you alright?"

“Just unsure how to proceed. You say you don’t want me to leave, but then you say you want to be alone. Which preference should I follow?”

“Oh.”   _Right._ Rena frowned a little, leaning back again, taking care with her response.  "I like the quiet when everyone's on shore leave after a busy week...but it gets kinda...lonely?  Y'know?"  She picked at her boots.

Ehrendil cocked his head. "Bears do not get lonely, except in spring…. But I was not always a bear, and I remember the feeling." He gave her a lopsided smile. "I could be a bear, if you prefer a more cuddly companion."

Rena smiled back at his lopsided one, a bit happier.  "It's spring now, y'know?"  She grinned a little more true, but shook her head.  "No.  You're trying not to be a bear any more.  You can be whatever you like around me, okay?"

After a quick nod, Ehrendil beckoned her closer. "Come sit with me then. Or let’s get away from here for a while. Today is supposed to be for rest, whatever that is you are doing can wait until tomorrow."  

Blushing yet again, Rena looked over at her pile of strewn equipment.  "Let me at least get it out of the way, then we can go wherever you like, okay?  I don't want anyone tripping over it or kicking pieces overboard.”

The druid nodded. He knew better than to help her with her packing, but he carried the boxes and equipment where she directed.  
  
Self-conscious of her oil-stained work clothes, Rena put the last piece of equipment in a box and nibbled at her bottom lip.  "Mind just finishing up while I go change?  Move the rest of these boxes back inside?"  She picked at an oil spot on her vest. 

Ehrendil paused in his labor, still holding a box. "Not at all."

"I'll be right back."  Rena nodded, then gave a more cheerful little salute and winked.  Once in her room, she swung the door closed behind her, tossing her work clothes in their proper corner and not realizing the latch popped, leaving the door slightly ajar.  Really, she should hit the showers first, but she didn’t want to leave Ehrendil waiting that long.  Instead, she washed up with a small basin of water and a cloth before she pulled out and looked at a few different shirts, frowning.  

She’d bought these fancier shirts months ago, thinking perhaps her array of work clothes always saw her overlooked for prettier girls.  Love wasn’t a _high_ priority, but it made the list.  She’d never really had anyone, no family, no one close like that, so _why wouldn’t_ love make the list?   _Not that Ehrendil’s probably interested, we’re not even the same species._

Meanwhile, once he finished clean up, Ehrendil ducked down below decks, then knocked on the door he thought was hers.  She’d mentioned something about co-opting the engine room and frequently disappeared back here where the now-quiet engine hummed loudest.  "...Renawyn?"

"Almost ready!"  She called back, grabbing a towel to finish drying off.  Facing the mirror on her door to make sure she got all the grease and finding none, she unpinned her hair and shook it loose.

Ehrendil chuckled from the other side of the door. "Almost? How long does it take to change into new clothes?"

"Well, I had to wash up really quick too, y’know?"  She turned away to grab her blue filigree shirt and black pants, missing the exact moment Ehrendil decided the unlatched door meant he could enter.  The soft creak of it blended in with the other ship sounds.  

As such, it was the draft that had Rena reaching for the handle too late.  At first, they only stared wide-eyed at each other.  

“Almost ready?”  He echoed, unable to resist taking her in.

Rena stood frozen, a slow-responding blush climbing up her freckle-covered skin as he looked her over.  Her loose hair mostly covered one of her small, perky breasts, clutched clothes only a dangling strip that barely concealed anything.

By the time Ehrendil dropped his gaze, he couldn’t help the pleased grin on his face, even as he ducked his head slightly. Still holding the door handle, he belatedly pulled it shut. "Sorry, I thought you would be dressed. You wish me to leave? I'll shut the door.”

Rena watched the door shut without saying a word one way or the other.  In fact, she barely moved at all, brain refusing thought until her reflection in the mirror once more called her out of it.  Without moving, she looked her image up and down.  The way he looked at her.  Though she blushed hotter, she also smiled, suddenly shy as she recalled the way he had smiled.  It took only a few more seconds though before the smile turned into a frown when she looked chest level, straightened her posture, and pushed up her visible breast in a critical way.  

Meanwhile, Ehrendil had turned away after the latch clicked, sliding down the wall until he sat on his heels. When no sound came from the other side, he called out again. "Renawyn?"   
  
Rena visibly startled, giving her reflection an embarrassed smile before she pulled her clothes on.  "I...I'm okay."  She laughed nervously.

"Good!" He smiled once more at her laughter. "If I may, you have no reason to be body shy. Quite the opposite in fact."

Rather than respond, she finished pulling her clothes on and opened the door, still sporting the sun-burned variety of blush across her nose and cheeks.  She tried saying something a few times but never managed to say anything, nor did she leave her room.  The moment left her brain staggered, only aware enough that everything she thought lacked cohesive sense at best, or sounded stupid at worst.

The druid looked up at her with eyebrows slightly raised in question as she floundered with speech. Getting to his feet, he touched her shoulder afterwards. "Are you ready? Do you still want to go?"

_Questions, I can answer simple questions._ She nodded.  "I'm ready now."  She looked down, blush renewing when she realized her gaze settled on his hips.  Quickly, she smiled back up at his face.  "Yeah."  

Noticing where her gaze ended up, he wondered if she could tell what sort of effect seeing her that way had on him.  He mimicked her smile, and with his other hand indicated she should go before him, moving the hand still on her shoulder to her back instead with gentle pressure. "After you then."

Fortunately, the new pants she’d given him hid the reaction well enough, but Rena turned all elbows and fumbles anyway as she moved around him as directed.  She managed to somehow trip over her own feet on the way.

Without thinking, Ehrendil reacted on reflex, catching her around the waist. He gave her a worried look and didn't let go until she stood steady again and pulled away from him. "Careful.”

"What are you talking about?"  She giggled, permanently red-faced by now.  "I'm incredibly graceful."

"Hmm...graceful...I thought that meant something else. I would have gone with 'clumsy'."   

"Meanie."  She responded, giggling and heading for the dining area of the ship.  "Was there anywhere specific you wanted to go?  Something you wanted to do, maybe?"  She turned and smiled up at him.

He shook his head. "Nowhere loud." He looked her over before swallowing. "You know the city, I’m still new and would be happy to sit along the harbor and watch the waves, or walk among the trees and listen to the birds."

"Oh...okay.  We can...go for a walk if you like then?"  She ducked her head as he looked her over much the same way he did in her quarters.  "If that's what you prefer."

"This is for making _you_ feel better, Renawyn. We will do whatever you want."

"Guess I forgot that."  She rubbed at the back of her neck.  "Well...if it's really up to me...I think I'd rather stay in and order pizza."  She gave him a sheepish smile.

Ehrendil raised a brow. "...Pizza?"

Rocking back and forth on her heels, she smiled.  "You'll see when it gets here."  


	4. Waiting for Pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who knew waiting for pizza could lead to such compromising positions among friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gigantic sigh* Alright, sorry this took so long but I am embarrassed by my own performance in this chapter. Hopefully that will be the longest pause you see. I decided to just finish the edits and post it. This chapter does get a little bit racier but still not overly explicit. We'll get there, don't worry...sprinkled liberally in a long "scene" I need to break up in edits as it lasted 72 pages lol.
> 
> Anyway, again, yes pizza delivery exists on Azeroth, we swear! 
> 
> This chapter also features the very first appearance of Steve (Name to be read with sharp, growly disapproval). He is only a minor character, super minor, but after this point, we decided all bit part jerks were to be named Steve henceforth. It is something like a running gag in our writing even though we don't personally have a problem with any Steves. I think we got it off a random Supernatural quote or...somewhere that Steve is also a bit part character mentioned with THAT tone.
> 
> Thank you for reading and for all the kudos thus far!
> 
> \---------------------------

“Glitchy!”  Rena called for her mechanical squirrel, clicking her tongue after.

Back in her room, the metallic clinking of the mechanical squirrel digging its way out of Rena's box of various metal parts answered her call.  The softer click-clack of the squirrel hopping toward them followed until the little creature stopped at their feet.  It chittered back in a hollow, mechanical way.  The end trilled up as if in question.

"Alright, listen carefully, you.  Pizza order."   


The squirrel chirped back a recording of pizza specifics in Rena's voice.   


"Good.  Go fetch."  She straightened and smiled brightly at Ehrendil.  "It's a food.  They'll be here in about an hour.  In the meantime."  She walked toward him.

Ehrendil's head went up and back as she approached, his eyebrows making a similar gesture.  _ Is she...? _ He didn't even let himself finish the sentence in his head, let alone aloud. "In the meantime....?" He echoed once more.  _ Is that all you can do, bear? Mimic her words? Did you not stop and think how to react if she  _ returned  _ your interest?  _ __  
__  
Rena only ended up passing him anyway.  She paused in her step just after, on her way back to her room, and wrinkled her nose again.   _ Wait...what am I doing?  We can’t just go back in there and  _ relax __...he’ll think.…    


A blush overtook the rest of her thoughts along with a niggling curiosity that tickled in the pit of her stomach.  “I’m...just gonna g-get into something more comfortable...pizza can get kinda messy, y’know?  Well, I guess you don’t know, but you will!”  She smiled over her shoulder at him.

Ehrendil watched her go with a confused expression.  _...Did she not just change? _ He trailed after her like a forlorn calf.  "What is wrong with what you have on?"    
  
“I almost ruined this shirt a few days ago.  I just need to change my shirt.  Just in case I get clumsy with the pizza sauce.”  She stuck her tongue out at him and then winked, smiling before she walked the rest of the way to her room.

"A good idea....You have been very clumsy of late." His tone was light as he teased her back. He continued trailing after her, stopping on the threshold of her room, and looking around with mild curiosity at the mass of machinery.    
  
Blushing again, she turned and closed the door on him with a small smirk.  “Not all of us are used to being a naked bear, y’know?”    


She didn't leave him waiting long before she opened the door again, wearing a loose-fitting sweater a few sizes too large for her.  While this one covered her midsection, it was large enough that it hung off one shoulder in a fuzzy green fabric that matched her eyes.  “It’s...kinda cramped in here, but more comfortable…if you don’t mind.”   


Her mind fluttered around in a slight panic over inviting him in her personal space, what he might think, what might happen, not settling on any one thing.  Acting casual, she opted for leaving the door open and sitting on the edge of her bed.  “The seats out there are really hard.”

He entered her room cautiously, looking around at the half finished projects and bits of machinery as if they might attack him. "Your hobbies certainly take up a lot of space." He observed , as if this was the reason he chose her bed as a seat. He looked back at her to see if this was alright, and afterwards said, "Is loose clothing required for pizza?" He looked down at the bits of harness and tight leather pants that were the only thing he wore. "I feel inappropriately dressed, if that's so."

“No.”  She giggled.  “But you said what’ll make me feel better, and this shirt is comfy... _ also _ I don’t care if I drip sauce on it.”  She nibbled at her lower lip.  “I normally just wear it to bed.”   _ Shoulda kept wearing the cute shirt, I guess. _  She twisted her lips off to one side.  “This is too cramped for you, huh?”  She took in his apparent unease.  “We can go out there instead.”  She pushed off the mattress.

Ehrendil frowned as his words backfired on him, even as his mind stalled on the phrase ‘ _I_ _normally_ _just_ _wear_ _it_ _to_ _bed_.’

"No" he backpedaled, "here is fine. only noting the lack of other places to sit. You felt uncomfortable when I offered my bed, yet here we are on yours." He sat at the headboard amongst the pillows, disinclined to move any time soon.    
  
Another blush spread over her cheeks as she sat back down, tucking back the curtain of her hair blocking him from view.  “Well...there’s a difference between sitting somewhere comfortable and…”  She trailed off, her blush darkening.  “And  _ sharing _ a bed.”  She glanced sidelong at him before looking away and thinking about his earlier offer.

"We are not sharing a bed now?" He asked, watching her redden further still. "How is this different?"   
  
_ So it was an innocent offer then?   _ She thought.  “Oh,”  escaped her lips, however, a touch disappointed.  She opened her mouth to say more, then thought better of it, reaching instead for a nearby book and fidgeting with it.  “I’ve never really done this sort of thing…”  She mumbled instead.  “I don’t know how to take it all.”

Ehrendil watched her thumb the corner of her book. He'd been watching her since he'd sat down. Her exposed shoulder, where the shirt collar had slipped to one side, drew his gaze. He swallowed. 

"What sort of thing? Sitting on opposite sides of a bed? Talking?" He took a pillow from the pile at his back and held it in his lap, both so that he didn't grab her to do the same and to conceal any untoward reactions his body had. He prayed she was too nervous to look. He prayed she wasn't.

She nodded.  “With a guy.”  She started saying something more and closed her mouth with a soft frown at the gnomish text.  “This is why you don’t just randomly answer doors naked, y’know?”  She finally said in frustration as the blush heated further down her neck.  She covered her mouth belatedly with an even deeper blush.   _ Great, now he knows I’ve also been sitting here thinking about that. _

Ehrendil tilted his head at her with perfect puppy dog confusion in his eyes and said, "That only happened once, and I apologized when I realized it upset you. I don't see how..." He paused, as something occurred to him. "Would you rather I be unclothed now? Is that the issue?" His fingers searched for the hidden clasp on his shoulderpads.    
  
Mind busy with the briefly imagined idea of tackling him and kissing away the puzzled expression, she almost missed his words.  They sunk in as his fingers found the clasps and one bit of leather slipped to the pillows behind him.

“Wait…?  What?”  When the words fully registered, she dumped her book in the floor in her flailing efforts to stop him.  “No no.”  Leaning in, her hand found his at the newly bare shoulder, second bit of leather falling into the pillows.  Close and touching now her brain stalled out as she stared at their hands, completely oblivious to how the scoop of her shirt provided a clear, braless view of her chest again.

He reached out to stabilize her unconsciously, hand settling on her hip. Her current angle gave him a definite view, and his eyes flicked down to look before finding her face again. 

"Renawyn, you are acting very strange today." He felt the heat of her small hand on his shoulder and it did pleasant things to him. He imagined that hand touching other parts of him, and closed his eyes.  _ Get yourself together, before...  _ Before he did something he would probably regret, such as pull her close and kiss her lips.   
  
Meanwhile, his hand at her hip sent a whole field of butterflies loose in her gut, fluttering south with a delicious shiver that made her ears burn.  When he closed his eyes, she remembered to breathe first and it came out sharp and embarrassingly shaky.  Her gaze flicked over to her hand on his shoulder.   _ Move your hand! _  She frowned at herself.   _ If he was interested… _  She shook her head and her hand slowly obeyed the command, trailing along his shoulder as she withdrew it.  “I-I’m sorry.”

"Don't be." His thumb traced little circles on her hip, not quite aware he was doing so. 

A small, nearly inaudible noise escaped her at that circling touch and she took in another shaky breath.  Maybe it was interest after all?

The corner of his mouth curled up into a smile. "Or, if you are, consider apologizing with your hands." He used his free hand, the one not on her hip, to rub his other shoulder.  “Moving boxes all day uses very different muscles than I’m used to. My shoulders feel like they’re full of knots." 

“Oh.  O-okay.”  Her brow furrowed as she shifted her weight forward, scooting closer and sitting on her knees in front of him.  “I don’t have any experience as a masseuse though...I could get you one...so you don’t injure yourself, y’know?”  She slid both of her hands over his shoulders and just...left them there, watching his lips while his eyes were still closed.  Or maybe this was just an excuse to keep her close?  Rena smiled timidly at the thought, trying not to be too hopeful.

He pressed his lips together in amusement, and chuffed a laugh. "Simple enough, run your fingers along the muscle till you feel the knot, though you will have a bad time of it that far away." He rolled his shoulders, stretching out the muscles there that were indeed tight. "I am not injured, Renawyn, just sore. There is no need for you to call a specialist, I was only hoping to make you smile. You worry too much."   
  
“Well, I’m not sure why you think sore muscles would make me smile, but I like helping so...”  The reminder jogged her memory on after-diving massages and she worked at the specific knots acquired from heavy lifting as he finished what he was saying.  She scooted even closer and rose up on her knees for a better grip and laid into the knots, forcing a smile on her face.   She was keenly aware of his hand still on her hip, but also disappointed by his calm demeanor.   _ Get a grip...if he were interested he’d have kissed me...right?  Right. _  She continued holding a mental dialogue with herself.

Little did she know, that calm demeanor was eggshell thin, and cracking as her fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders. He couldn't help it, as the knots loosened up he made little breathy moans. 

Her breath caught and she bit at her lower lip, the now-too-familiar blush heating up into her ears again and scattering the butterflies about.

Still, with her in front of him, she really couldn't apply the best force, or so he told himself, so he caught her hands, drawing them to his lips with a quick gesture of thanks, he twisted so that he  laid face down on her bed in front of her, head pillowed on his forearms. "Surely this way is easier on your wrists?" 

The heat of her skin practically caught fire, pooling also between her legs, sending the butterflies a more intense flurry.  She stared at his back for several moments, his hips, and then his shoulders with a soft frown when he turned over.  “I’ll uh...um.”  She coughed and her voice was smaller and far more shy.  “I can’t reach your other shoulder now without...straddling you.”  She rubbed her right ear and swallowed before sliding one hand over his closest shoulder, then reaching for the other, just to make sure.

His ears twitched at her tone and he shrugged, making all the muscles in his back tense. He twisted his head, and his smile was only half seen from her perspective.    


“So you will, but is this any different than when I let you ride on my back as the bear? Less fur, perhaps….” The only ‘fur’ in sight on him was his mane of hair, tied back into a thick and short tail.  “Less chance of falling, since I don’t intend to move.” 

_ Oh yeah...it’s different, trust me.  Wait…. _  “When was this?”  Confusion in her tone, she released his shoulders, sitting back on her lower legs and tilting her head so she could see his face better.

He stilled, the animalistic urge to hide in the presence of something potentially dangerous. With a fluidity that was too practiced to be anything but forced, his slack expression curled into a smirk, and he tried to laugh it off. 

“Ah, perhaps that was…” He propped himself up on his elbows, and gave her a sheepish look. “That might have been a dream, now that I think on it.”    
  
Her stomach somersaulted and she leaned over a little more, brushing her hair off the side of her face and behind her ear again.  Her hand rested on her neck.  “You...dream about me?”  She was probably smiling way too much, but she couldn’t help it.

He looked embarrassed as he nodded, perhaps the first time she’d seen him color with the emotion, the tips of his ears and his cheeks darkening to a deep amaranthine purple.  “I am not well versed in dream-walking...I cannot always control...Sometimes it gets away from me. My apologies if this makes you uncomfortable.”    
  
Her smile turned into something more of a smirk as she watched a blush overtake him now, impulsively tweaking the darkened tip of his ear.  It twtiched in her hands, tugging free as he ducked his head.  Encouraged by his show of shy interest, she hesitated only a few moments more before slipping onto his back, her own hips tense and heated against his skin.    


He went still as she slid her thighs over him, afraid to scare her away.

“No different...right?”  She pushed her hands up his back to his shoulders and bit at her bottom lip again.   _I want it different._ _He saw...he smiled, right?_  The blush renewed its burning and her thighs tightened around him.

“I have the same mind, regardless if I walk on two legs or four.” He returned to his fully prone position to give her better access to his shoulders.

A soft frown settled on her face as she mulled that over and worked at the knots in his shoulders again.  Various memories and things he’s said over the last few days mixed in her thoughts, adding to the back and forth in her own mind.   _ If it was just riding around on his back like some little kid… _

_ ’I don’t mind if you stare.’  _  rung back in response.   


“Do you answer the door naked for everyone?”  She blurted out, almost not realizing she’s asked the question aloud.

Ehrendil, who had been making happy (indecent?) noises as her hands found and worked out the knots in his muscles, paused and twisted to look at her.    
  
“Are you still bothered by it?” He asked instead. “I did apologize”  _ What is she trying to get at? “ _ I was sleeping beforehand.” He sounded like he was trying to use it as an excuse, a hedge if she was still bothered.  _ But then she wouldn’t have agreed to this, would she?  _

Rena shook her head at the first question, covering her frown quickly with a shy smile before nibbling at her lower lip as he continued.   


“I’m not bothered,” she said when he’d settled into silence again. Responses and thoughts flew through her mind as she ducked her head in a feeble attempt at hiding her expression.  Was he really interested?  And if he was, how far did that go?  With him making all these little noises,  _ light.   _ She needed it more than just physical too.  Releasing his shoulders, she leaned away, her hair tickling down his lower back as she sat fully upright.   


“Well...maybe... I mean…”  She sighed and slid off of him.  “I can’t do this.”  She allowed her hair to block him from view,  _ block her expression from his view,  _ as she twisted around to sit cross legged beside him.  Her earlier mood returned in force, what had really been getting to her.  She made friends alright, but never really  _ connected  _ with anyone.  She thought  _ maybe  _ she’d made a connection, before Ehrendil, he’d seemed interested too.  And then he’d left with just a note, thanking her for helping him, off to go train with renewed dedication.

Ehrendil was happily enjoying the weight of her, and her hands on his back, so when she twisted up and away from him, he blinked stupidly, allowing her to get settled on the opposite side of the narrow bed, facing away from him.  _ Can’t do what? What did I say? _ He propped himself up on a hand and one hip and reached out to her with the other, placing his hand between her shoulderblades.    
  
“Renawyn….” he trailed off, sounding forlorn. “Have I done something wrong?”    
  
“No...I’m just really stupid, you know?”  She sniffled, still flushed with desire, a little confused, and painfully aware of how lonely she’d been.   _ Oh yeah, this is awesome.  Cry like a baby about it. _  She tried sneaking the farthest arm from him up to wipe at the tears on her face.  She took in a shaky breath.  “I mean, maybe you don’t care who sees you...like  _ that _ but…”  She sighed.  “I can’t just rub your back while you make those little noises and pretend.  It’s not the same for me, okay?  It’s not...innocent.”  She blushed hot at the last word choice.

He made a low whine in the back of his throat, more a bear’s distress than a man’s. He sat up fully and mimicked his earlier movement out on the deck, pulling her close to him with a hand around her middle. Only this time, instead of being pressed up against the soft fur of the bear, she was held against the hard muscle of his chest.    
  
“Renawyn…” He said her name again, his cheek against her hair, a sigh of frustration. Because she didn’t resist, he pulled her into his lap, heedless of certain things she may feel pressing against her. It had been a long time since he’d felt a woman’s touch, and she definitely was affecting him. He used his free hand to wipe away the tears that she’d missed, resting his chin on her head. The pose was the same as the one he adopted as the bear when he wished to comfort her.    
  
She stilled at first, but did not otherwise resist and she couldn’t miss what else, besides his muscles, was hard against her.  She made a small involuntary sound tinged with her own arousal and her breath quickened.  She tensed further rather than relaxing against him this time, heat flooding back in force.  She held her breath and bit down on an involuntary whimper, her hips meeting his on their own.    


“Lonely spring bear huh?”  She laughed nervously at her poor joke, but caught his hand, still wet with a few tears, in both of hers and brought it back up to her face, holding her lips against the side of his thumb.   


He shuddered at her touch, his breath ragged as he manages to chuckle, a few dry exhalations. Twisting away from her so that he was no longer grinding her against him, he nodded, knowing she would feel it if not see it. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...I didn’t want to pressure you.” He murmured into her hair, an apology for her feeling his arousal. “I promise, I can behave. This bear has been lonely for some time, a season or two more won’t hurt anything.”    
  
She took a deep breath and let it out shaky when he withdrew.  “I-I’m not sure I want you behaving.”  She stammered, feeling overheated again, she let another shaky breath out with a small huff and craned her neck to try and look at him.  She rubbed her cheek against his hand along the way before dropping the hold until his hand rested close enough to her heart he could feel it pounding.  She hugged his arm there and leaned against him with a sigh.

Leaning against him, she felt the fine tremors her words caused. He pressed his hand firmly against her chest, lest it stray southwards.    
  
“I don’t….Renawyn...I wouldn’t use you like that.” Still, he didn't pull away from her. 

Her breath escaped her in another small huff.  Just as she was convincing herself it’d be okay if it were just physical, people did that all the time.  His words tore her in two directions, one almost begging for his continued touch and the other far more emotional.  “It’s...just physical then?”  She twisted a little in his arms in a way that unintentionally brought their hands much closer to her right breast.  She relaxed his grip on him, letting him pull away if he wanted.   


The soft furrow between her eyebrows might betray her thoughts as she got a better look at his face.   _ Of course it is...I’m the only weirdo who just loves everyone who says hello to her...people she’s never even met...bear-elves who refuse to take advantage of that… _  She smiled and kissed the tip of his nose.

“Hasn’t anyone told you not to taunt a bear?” He growled, letting his hand drop to her lap. It brushed her breast on the way down. The effort of not taking her then and there made him tremble. He gripped her thigh, near her knee, to keep his hand from wandering. “It is taking all of my resolve as it is.” His voice sounded strained. “This...I’m not… I don’t rush these things, Renawyn. I don’t want to hurt you.” 

The sound of his growl had arced up through her more than any skydive she’d ever taken and she shivered in reaction.   _ I’ve also been told to let sleeping bears lie...I don’t listen so well… _  She smirked a little and almost said as much before he continued and her furrow-browed frown returned.  “You’ll only hurt me if you don’t want to stay…”  She said softly, shy and uncertain.  “Find yourself some tall willowy graceful thing I could never be…”  She bit her lip as she realized that would already hurt and some of the sexual tension leaked out with it as she leaned against him for comfort.  She’d grown used to the last part, rejections of the past coloring her tone.   
  
“No.” Ehrendil’s grip tightened on her, pulling her close once more. “No. What would I even do with someone like that?” He nuzzled her hair in an attempt to comfort her.    
  
She laughed a little, but it was definitely tinged with sadness still.  “Oh, I dunno, same thing every guy decides he’d rather do with girls like that?”  She ran her right hand down the length of his arm to his wrist at her leg and then back up.  “I don’t think I’ve ever been in the running, y’know?”  She shrugged.

“Someone like me? Not likely.” Ehrendil snorted, then she ran her hands over his arms and it became something like a purr.  “They don’t make for good company anyway.”

He hugged her close before releasing her to move back to his original spot at the headboard. Once he’d settled, he touched her shoulder and beckoned her to him with a raised arm, indicating he’d like her against him.   


“I’ll have to keep the ones that are away from you then.”  She laughed and looked back as he touched her shoulder and held his arm up.  She smiled more true and leaned back with him, snuggling in with one arm down the length of his side and the other over his chest.  Her hand rested over his heart, her head on his shoulder.

He curled his arm around her, and sighed happily. “No need, I’ve no intentions of leaving.” 

“Well...about that…”  She patted his chest.  “Crew’s gonna talk, y’know?  And snuggling is not gonna be the topic.”  She looked up at him from where she was resting on his shoulder.

“Let them.” He shrugged in reply. “Or tell them the truth, whatever you think is best for your reputation. I have none worth tarnishing.” 

“I’m not sure I have a reputation either.”  She blinked.  “We work together...but we don’t really interact, y’know?  I interact with the arc and dive teams more and we get pretty focused on our work.”  She frowned.  “We’ve never really hung out.  I guess I really don’t fit outside of the job.”

Ehrendil frowned at this revelation, looking down at her. He brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face, letting his hand drop down to her shoulder afterwards.  “I didn’t think you knew how not to make friends.” he said softly. “You are so bright. Cheerful.”    
  
She smiled at that, still looking up at him.  “Well...at work I tend to be pretty quiet, and serious.  Most of them have known me since I was only 12...and a cabin ‘boy’ besides.  I guess it’s just different.”  She rolled her shoulder.  “I’m the only human, y’know?”

“That does not seem to stop you otherwise.” He allowed his fingers to wander over the curve of her shoulder.    
  
Her eyes closed in response.  “I guess it’s just the way we’ve always interacted.  Plus most of ‘em just go out drinking in their free time.”  She opened her eyes again and looked up at him.  “I don’t really like that sort of thing.”  She closed her eyes again.  “Narced once as a tadpole.  That was more’n enough for me.”

He tilted his head at the odd words, but passed them in favor of asking a more pressing question. He was quiet for a bit first, gathering up the courage to ask.  “Renawyn...if the crew is going to talk either way, and you don’t mind their talk, you should re-think my offer from earlier. About staying with me for a night or two.” He stroked her outer arm, shoulder to elbow and back again as he spoke, studiously looking away as he said this, his body tense against hers. “You would sleep better, not being as close to your neighbors.” 

Silence followed his question for several moments before she began idly tracing the contours of his muscles with the hand on his chest, eyes closed still.  “It’s a little cramped in here.”  She admitted.

“It’s a real offer, I’m not… “ Her touch on his chest was wonderful, and he closed his eyes against the assault. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to, I just thought you could get a good night’s sleep out of this, if we’re going to start rumors.”    
  
“I’ve always felt safe on this ship.  I sleep pretty well with the ocean rocking my bed.”  She squirmed a little until she’d extricated her other arm and maneuvered it above the one he had around her shoulders.  Now leaning on her forearm so she can look down at him, her hand on his chest had stilled.  “But your bed is better suited for two.”  She looked down at his shoulder, blushing again.

“It is.” He said solemnly. “I would like that, I think.” He paused to boop her gently on the nose with one finger. “I have questions first…” He trailed off, and smirked at her until she realized he wanted her to respond before he asked. 

She wrinkled her nose a little and gave him a curious look, raising an eyebrow when he didn't continue.  “Such as?”  She prompted.

“Snoring, for one.” He looked at her with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “Do you? Any other bad bedroom habits?” He looked at her askance. “Blanket thief? I bet you are a blanket thief.” 

“Oh, I generally don’t record myself sleeping.”  She reached over her head for a pillow and thwomped it down on his chest with a giggle.  “What about you, bear, have you had all your shots?”

“Rena!” Ehrendil sputtered as he was hit with a pillow. It turned into a playful growl as he snapped his teeth at her.

“Ooo!”  She feigned a wince at his snapping teeth, giggling and preparing to smack him again with the pillow.  He easily managed to pin her to the bed with an easy flip of their positions first, straddling her thighs to hold her down as his long fingers ran up and down her ribs. 

“Hit *me* with a pillow, will you…” He growled playfully as he tickled her.    
  
She was still giggling before he even started tickling.  “Wait!”  she laughed.  “No!  That’s not fair!”  She squirmed under him laughing in the way only a truly, extremely ticklish person would.  “Ah!”  More gasping laughter.  “Dil!”

A knock on the open doorway made him freeze, and he turned to look with wide eyes at a young human male in an outlandish hat holding a large flat box. 

“Uh…..Pizza delivery?” The dudebro said in common, lifting the box a little bit to drive the point home. 

Ehrendil just blinked at him, still on top of Renawyn, hands dropping to his thighs.    
  
Renawyn was still fairly breathless, which did not help said pizza bro’s composure as he smirked a little and lowered the pizza in an effort to hide his own reaction at the sight and the sounds he must have heard before entering.   
  
“Oh, hello Steve,”  She gasped, still catching her breath.  She looked up at Dil before she started blushing though, and then down to see her loose shirt had been pulled just a little too low in their rough housing.  She yanked at the collar.  “Dil...pizza.”  She nudged the kaldorei, still quite pinned beneath him.

Ehrendil looked back at her as she said his name, and his ears darkened belatedly in reaction to their positions.    
  
“Oh, ah...right.” He said, rolling off of her and onto his feet off the bed. He eyed ‘Steve’, his ears pinned slightly. 

Meanwhile, the pizza bro’s eyes had not left Renawyn, focused more on her bare shoulder as she bounced off the bed with her usual high energy restored and they exchanged a few words in common.  She accepted the pizza box and passed it off to Dil.  “Bottom’s pretty hot.”  She warned him, forgetting he couldn’t understand common, and then crossed the rest of the room to dig money out of some engineering contraption.

He took the box from her almost absently, more concerned with her reaction to being caught in such a compromising position, regardless of what she’d said earlier. 

  
“Yes, yes it is.”  The pizza bro eyed her backside as she counted out the money and then mouthed to Ehrendil, “Dude, what’s your secret?”  Oblivious to any return glares as he made a spanking motion behind her back and pumped his hips in her direction. 

Ehrendil frowned at Steve’s mimicry, wondering if he was missing something. Even though he couldn't understand the words, his attitude did not seem like proper behavior. Still, Renawyn seemed familiar with him and perhaps this was some odd human ritual.    
  
“Sorry,” she apologized as she turned around and smiled up at Steve, who now had his hands folded neatly in front of him.  Rena gave him the money.  “We lost track of time.”  She tugged her collar up, a bit self-conscious.   
  
“Sorry?”  His eyes flicked over to the kaldorei.  “I’d pay you just to let me watch.”  His smirk came off as more of a leer, holding the money back out to her.

Renawyn’s continued fidgeting with her clothes began to tip Ehrendil’s view of the situation to the negative. He twisted at the waist to set the box on the bed, and turned back in time to see the leer on Steve’s face. Definitely not acceptable.   
  
“Watch?”  She looked back at Dil, her smile fading, before she looked back at Steve again.  “Pay me?”  Her voice was bewildered and pitched higher with disbelief.  She noted Ehrendil’s somewhat bewildered expression, silent a few moments longer before she remembered he didn't speak common.  She switched to Darnassian.  “He’s offering money to watch us.”

Ehrendil exhaled sharply. The odd behavior he had seen before now fell into place.  _ He wants to watch us fuck?  _ He growled threateningly and began to walk toward the interloper with stiff motions.    
  
Coupled with their equally confused expressions, Dudebro Steve mistook the Darnassian translation for negotiations, and with his attention focused on Renawyn, he didn't yet notice threat in Ehrendil’s stance.  “I thought maybe you were a tease, but I guess all you really needed was a big elf di-” He was cut off as Ehrendil grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him off his feet as if Steve weighed nothing, and tossed him out of the room. 

The dudebro landed on his ass in the hall, unhurt but upset that his machismo, such as it was,  had been threatened. He began to get to his feet. 

“Bro! Not...!” Steve once more was cut off as Ehrendil dropped from two legs to four, and Steve was suddenly face to face with a  _ very  _ angry bear. The bear roared a challenge, and Steve fell back once more only to scramble back up to his feet and away as fast as he could. “Hey m-man, it’s cool, no need t-to…”

The bear that was Ehrendil roared once more and gave chase, charging directly at the pizza boy, who did the first smart thing he’d done all evening and turned to run. The bear followed him, gaining as they rounded the corner and out of sight. 

Meanwhile, Rena had only just started feeling angry enough she clenched her hands into fists and took a step back when Ehrendil grabbed Steve and the whole thing escalated from there.  She watched Dil switch forms and advance on Steve in a bit of shock, having not yet seen the more feral side of the bear.   
  
She imagined what might happen if Dil was not just scaring Steve, followed by what the guard might do to Dil after.  And then they disappeared around the corner, spurring her into action after them.   “Dil!  Wait!”  She rounded the corner hoping Steve could outrun bears.

The bear’s long ears twitched at his name but there was a young cub that needed to be taught a lesson about respecting older males’ territories. The dudebro was halfway across the common room and headed toward daylight, but the bear was faster and reached the door seconds after the human. Out on the main deck with room to maneuver, it was easy for the bear to circle around and prevent the boy from reaching the gangplank, herding him to the far side, away from the docks. 

Steve was blubbering by the time Ehrendil cornered him against the rail, walking toward him with a slow, stiff gait, all the fur on his neck and shoulders standing straight up. 

“Please dude, I d-didn't mean..”    
  
“Dil!”  Rena shouted, skidding out onto the deck after them.  She took in the rather scary sight of an angry bear, fur bristled, and cowering pizza boy who quite obviously wet his pants.  She tried a more gentle voice in Darnassian.  “He’s not worth it.”  Her voice quivered with what might be fear.

Ehrendil’s ears twitched once more at his name and he turned his head to look at her without moving away from the boy. He grunted and clacked his jaw in response, turning back to the boy, who was still a few yards away, with a lowered head and another clack of teeth. The bear bluff-charged with a growl, a stiff forward bounce that only gained him a few inches, but it was enough for poor Stevie, who scrambled backwards only to find he couldn't go any further and still be on the ship. He toppled over the railing and tumbled out of sight. The bear’s demeanor shifted to something less threatening as he huffed his ursine laugh, ambling over to the railing to growl and show his teeth once more at the dudebro, as if his message wasn’t clear enough.    
  
The latter half of the show had Rena fighting between concern and giggling as she recognized the bear’s laughter.  She grabbed a lifesaver and looked over the edge to be sure Steve wasn't drowning.  “Can you swim?”  She called down in common.

Steve was currently treading water, but when he saw the lifesaver he started paddling away from the boat. 

“NO!” He called, taking a mouthful of water in his haste to get away. “I mean, yes! I’ll just….go around….to the docks.” He was still eyeing the bear with ill concealed terror. The last thing Steve wanted to do was get back on that boat. 

“I think a cold swim is just what you need anyway!”  She called back and then giggled, looking down at the bear with a delighted smirk.  She switched to Darnassian with a shrug.  “Guess he doesn’t wanna watch any more.  Ever.”  She laughed again and tousled the fur on the bear’s head with obvious affection.

He closed his eyes and huffed a pleased sigh before rubbing his head on her front from hip to chest, grunting happily. He took a step forward so that she was even with his shoulders and looked back at her with all the mischievousness a bear could muster.    
  
Bending over again to rub between his shoulderblades, Renawyn still held the lifesaver in her free hand.  “What, you want a trophy, bear?”  She giggled, offering him the lifesaver.

Ehrendil took it from her in his teeth and shook it with mock ferocity before tossing it aside. Walking around behind her, he took matters into his own paws and dipped his head between her legs, lowered his shoulders, and continued walking. 

“Okay, okay, we’ll make your dreams come true already!”  She giggled, helping enough that she didn't end up teetering over the edge herself.  “Commence the victory ride?”  She giggled and patted his shoulder.

Ehrendil paraded her around the deck, his hard won trophy perched on his back. He was careful to move slowly enough that she didn't fall off or have to pull at his fur too much. After a few loops he started back toward the cabin. 


	5. First Time for Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things finally get a little steamier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explicit moments threaded throughout this one. Contains oral, handjob, first time (messing around, they don't quite get to the main deed), and a brief flirtation with furries a la Dil's bear form. At this point I'm just editing and posting them without much looking back and trying not to be too self conscious about my own writing over two years ago. Anyway, again, not only does pizza exist on Azeroth, but it's a proper Chicago deep dish! Finally, we created the term "shana" as a kaldorei honorific of sorts for a female of higher status, inspired by existing Darnassian (primarily, shando, the term for a teacher).
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> RAWR!
> 
> \--------------------------------

By the end of the victory ride, Rena leaned forward with her face nuzzled in the fur around his neck, arms wrapped around him from behind.  She lifted her head and kissed the back of his neck with another giggle as they re-entered her small room.

Ehrendil rumbled his pleased response, almost a purr of sorts. He sidled up against the bed and did a bit of a jump and twist, bucking her off onto it.  
  
Rena squeaked with surprise, giggling again as she rolled over the side and onto one elbow, facing him, showing the easier grace of confidence now.  With a briefly more serious expression, she held out her hand, first finger up.  “No more tickling!”

Impulsively, Ehrendil took that finger in his jaws, the tiny teeth at the front of his muzzle pressing gently against her skin. His tongue curled around the digit and pressed it to the roof of his mouth.    
  
The sound of her breath catching interrupted her easy smile as she merely stared at first, electric little butterflies back in full force.  As though he’d pulled her whole body forward, she’d risen up from her elbow, weight supported by her hand instead, and leaned toward him, lips parted by the end of it.  

_ He’s still a bear! _  She bit at her bottom lip while searching his eyes, finding the elf there and giving him a timid smile.

Humor clear in his eyes, he let her finger go in favor of putting both paws up on the bed.  Then, he nudged her shoulder and neck with his nose, blowing warm air against her ear.  He followed it with a lick.    
  
Rena buried her hand in the fur at his opposite shoulder and giggled, bringing her neck down on the other side where the warm air and his nose tickled.  The giggling cut off in a small vocalized gasp when he licked again, just the right spot this time.  Tingles danced over her limbs.  Her hand in his fur clenched a little and her blush returned.   _ He’s still a bear… _ her mind repeated, a bit more panicked.   _ First time with a bear? _  “Dil…”  Her voice escaped her breathy and uncertain.

Ehrendil the bear felt her fingers tighten in his fur, but the scent of her arousal overpowered the panic, filling his nose. He nudged her more forcefully this time, toppling her over to one side and joining her on the bed, which creaked under his weight. Straddling her, he tugged at her clothes with the long claws of one forepaw, touch surprisingly delicate as he hooked their blunt edges into her waistband. 

The feeling of butterflies became more like a live wire, thrumming.  Her breathing quickened and she gripped the fur at his shoulder from the back this time.  Shivering from both nerves and anticipation, she tugged a little.   _ Wait... _ she pled in her thoughts, but it escaped her only as half a gasp.  Tinged with desire, but also an undertone of panic.   _ Dil...please...not a bear first.   _ She reached for his paw.

The bear was in the middle of using his nose to lift up her shirt, cold on her stomach, when she reached for his paw. He stopped with a blink to meet her eyes, and saw the panic there with the desire. It jarred him out of his bearskin and back into an elf, scrabbling off of her with horror and shame in his eyes. At the end of the bed he turned on a knee to step off and put his back to her, his breathing ragged. 

“Dil, wait….”  Getting almost immediately to her knees, Rena wrapped her arms around his middle from behind before he could fully leave the bed and laid her cheek against his back.  His expression bothered her far more than anything else that night.   Too short to mimic his comforting pose from earlier, she did her best at projecting calm.  Comfort.   “Don’t go.”  She tightened her arms around him, her breath already calming.

He shook under her touch, took a few more ragged breaths, and covered her hand on his waist with his. Silent otherwise, he bowed his head away from her.    
  
“It’s okay, really,” she soothed, still panting just a little.  “I just...not for my first time, okay?  That’s all.”  With a gentle touch, she stroked his stomach.  “I know you’re both the same mind…” she trailed off, running out of words, though she kept her tone soothing.

"I didn't...." His brain caught up with his ears and he echoed "Not for your first time...?" 

“Or ever,” she quickly amended, “If it weirds you out...is it bad I kinda liked it at all…?”  She worried out loud, frowning now.

He turned to look at her, brows drawn together in confusion. "You would...you  _ liked...?" _ He'd stopped shaking in his focus on her, and he squeezed her hand he still held trapped at his waist. "Even though....you have never....been with anyone?"   
  
Her cheeks flushed with a faint mirror of his earlier shame and she looked down, nodding.  “It’s...the bear is still you.”  Her brow furrowed as she tried figuring out why she liked it while impulsively wanting to hide from him now.  “That’s...not normal, huh?”  Her voice escaped her incredibly small.

Ehrendil twisted in her grasp, catching either side of her face along the jaw, tilted her head up, and kissed her. It was full of passion and desire for all its chasteness, he didn't try and gain entry to her mouth, didn't tease her tongue out with his. Still, when he pulled away he was just as flush as she.    
  
Tension leaked from every one of Rena’s muscles as her hands moved higher up his back feeling a full hum in her core more than a stirring below the hips.  She kept her eyes closed as he pulled away, savoring the moment.  “I...liked that more,”  she almost whispered, smiling soft and biting at her lip as she opened her eyes.

Her words pulled a sigh of frustration from him, and he dropped his hands to her shoulders. "I'm sorry..." He dropped his gaze down and away from her. "I shouldn't...." Another sigh, "I'm sorry."    
  
“Shouldn’t what?”  She couldn't keep the note of worry from her voice, mingled with confusion.

"Kiss you like that after I almost...." Ehrendil trailed off, his brain stubbornly adverse to finishing sentences right now. He made a helpless gesture with his hands, taking them off her shoulders in the process.   
  
With an encouraging smile, she changed her pose, looking up at him from the side so he could also see her face.  “I was thinking it was the perfect thing to do after that.  Maybe another to make up for it?”  Her smile turned a little sly and she lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Rena...." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't want you to think...I don't want to rush things." 

She mulled that over a few moments, struggling with the right response.  “You’re kaldorable,” she settled for a horrible pun instead and smiled knowingly about it.  “That’s what I think.”  She booped his nose the same way he did to her earlier.

He snorted, wrinkling his nose at her and her pun. He caught the hand that booped his nose and held it in his. “I don’t want to hurt you. You are so…” He brought her fingers to his lips instead of finishing. 

“You say any variation of delicate or fragile and I swear I’ll think of worse puns.  Maybe even a Gnomish limerick for you.”  She pursed her lips over a playful smile.

That got a smirk out of him. “Then I won’t.”  _ Elune help me…. _ he prayed, looking at this girl who snared him with her kind words and easy smiles. 

The same bright and easy smiles she gave him now, very much like she'd won a victory.  “Good.  Because what I lack in size I make up for in agility and flexibility, you know?  You’ve never really seen me in my element.”

Ehrendil looked as if he'd swallowed his tongue at that statement. He blushed and looked away.  _ She trying to get me to take her...oh Elune...How bold does she think I am?  _ His eyes fell on the forgotten pizza box, and he took the distraction gladly. He could deal with the ache in his loins for now. He was not certain he could be gentle enough for her otherwise.  

“Ah...I’m sure.” He looked at the pizza box pointedly. “Are you still hungry?” 

Though somewhat oblivious to how her previous comment was taken, her smile took on a coy nature over the obvious pizza distraction.  Knowing his level of interest eased her sense of awkward self doubts.

“Forgot all about the pizza,” she admitted, hopping off the bed and flinging the lid open.  “It’s basically a pie stuffed with meats, cheese, and veggies, lots of tomato sauce and more cheese.”  She grabbed a couple of clean, dome-shaped metal scraps and scooped out a wedge for him from the throw-away tin in the box.  Then, she handed him one of two forks before turning and serving up a slice for herself.

He took both, eying the slice of pizza with barely concealed uncertainty. He waited for her, watching to see how she attacked it. 

After her third bite she realized he was watching rather than eating.  She finished chewing her bite a bit self-consciously before speaking.  “It’s not going to bite you.  Just try a little bit.”

He huffed and did so, finding it tasted better than expected, though he had trouble getting the stringy cheese to cooperate. “Is this what you would be doing if I had not shown up today by mistake? eating this….” He twirled his fork awkwardly to try and manage the cheese. “And hiding in your room?” 

“Today?  Yeah.  Probably.”  She ate a few more bites.  “Why?”

“Curiosity.” Ehrendil shrugged. He focused on his pizza, silent for the time it took him to finish it. Only when he reduced it to crumbs and a smear of sauce did he add. “I’m not very good at this...talking. Being a person.” 

“Well, I like the person you are.  I think you’re extra good at it.”  Rena gave him one of her easily affectionate smiles and then ate her last bite as well.  “What would you be doing if you got my note?”  She reached out for his empty bowl.  “More?”

He held his bowl out to her and nodded. “Sleeping, most likely. Trying to understand the city and find food.” He looked down at his new slice of pizza. “Harder than expected, not knowing common.” 

“I can teach you, y’know?  Or take you to Lesara for some cheating.  I mean...you could go to the cathedral for the same but…”  She paled a little as she contemplated that last one and then wrinkled her nose before handing her bowl down to Glitchy who scooted it out of the room, presumably for cleaning.  

Religious crowds and cathedrals held unpleasant memories for her.  However, that hardly explained the spike of anxiety leaving her cold.

Meanwhile, Ehrendil choked on his piece of pizza after she casually mentioned a name that jarred loose some of his memory. He paled as well, as much as a dark skinned Kaldorei could, making him appear ashen. 

When Rena looked up, her heart dropped again, as if she personally felt the expression on his face.  “Woah, you okay--”

“Ta’elesara?” he interrupted, sounding a bit off. Scared even.  _ Is this all some part of their plans? Am I supposed to seduce her? Is that why I’m here? _

“Yeah...but I’ve never seen anyone react like that to her.  Ethala’Aman?”  She asked, doubtful they were talking about the same woman.  In her concern for his sudden look of stricken panic, she leaned toward him, reaching out.

“You shouldn’t associate with her...she’s dangerous.” Ehrendil looked at her with wide eyes, and leaned away as she reached out. He set his improvised plate down, no longer hungry.  _ Is she in on it? What’s going on?  _

Rena backed up almost immediately as he did, letting him retreat, giving him space.  Her expression, however, betrayed how much his withdrawal stung.  

“Dil…”  She shook her head.  “She saved my life once...taught me your language.  Have you ever actually  _ met _ her?  Because she’s  _ nothing _ like her mother, y’know?”  Her mind ran around many questions, his clear dislike of other elves….

“Ta’elesara saved you? She’s nothing like her mother…?” Ehrendil shook his head and raised a knee, his arm on that side looping it loosely. Confused and hurt, his ears drooped in his distress. “They lie, Rena, it’s what they do. They lie and manipulate and…” he cut off, pressing his lips together and looking away. 

Ysareline, Lesara's mother, had been convicted of magical experiments, particularly in necromancy.  Rena knew that much.  And Lesara had given the most damaging testimony.  

“Did they hurt you?”  She asked, stamping down the stubborn threat of tears.

They were both quiet for several moments before Rena moved just a little bit closer, ready to retreat again at the smallest hint she was unwanted.  She had to try.  Furthermore, her concern for him left her unwilling to simply leave him alone.  He needed  _ somebody,  _ whether he realized it or not.

“I met Ysareline once…just once…”  Rena confessed.  “She said they should’ve let me die.  Or put me down...like an animal, y’know.  I had a fever.”  Her brow furrowed deeper.  “Then she  _ looked _ at me and I... _ light  _ I’d never been so scared.  I ran.  I ran and I never looked back.  She’d been put to death by the time I found Lesara again.”  She paused only for a few moments, reaching out again.  “What’d they do to you?”

Ehrendil shook his head, unwilling to answer. In truth, he was too confused. He stood, pushing off the bed in a quick movement, but lost steam only a few steps from it.  Facing away from her, he missed her abandoned gesture. 

_ He ran too...is that why he became a bear…?  They did something to him. _  A series of pleas on Lesara’s behalf started at least five different ways before she just sighed.  “Don’t...run again...okay?  Promise me?  Please?”

“How do I know you’re not….” the words escaped him before he could think to censor them. “They  _ use  _ people, Rena, with or without consent. How can I be sure I wasn’t supposed to be on that path that day, or that you didn’t just so happen to come along?” He swallowed, shaking again, fine tremors throughout his frame. He tried quieting them to no avail. 

It was an impossible question.  “They’ve used you before, haven’t they?”  She guessed instead, the tinge of worry in her voice unchecked.  “I guess those are pretty impossible questions...but if they are involved…”  She paused here, frowning.  “They don’t like Lesara.  She’s a more likely target.”

That got him to turn back toward her. “Don’t like….She was going to be the heir.” He waved a hand, more batting at the air than anything. “Most likely…” he looked at her with confusion. “I should go.” 

_ “No…”  _  The word came out more of a pained whimper than a statement and after only a moment’s more hesitation she scrambled off the bed, blocking his escape.  “No.  You...you can’t let them take more of your life!  You just can’t!”  She was acutely aware of how childish she sounded and didn't particularly care.  Blinking back angry tears, Rena fought against her wobbling lower lip.

“You don’t understand...I could’ve…I don’t want to hurt you.” He went over and gently took her shoulders. “Until I know  _ they  _ weren’t behind this…” 

His words only made her tears fall in earnest now.  “But it already hurts….  And how can you ever know something like that?  You can’t.  Please?  Please, don’t go….”

Her tears crumbled his resolve, and he reached up, wiping some away, his other hand stroked her hair. “Renawyn…”     
  
She tackle-hugged him around his waist and held on tight.  “I’ll go with you, okay?”  She sniffled.  “But they can’t have you.  I won’t let them.”  The threat in her tone came out at odds with anything she actually seemed capable of.

“Not much point in leaving if you come with me.” He said, defeated.  _ Elune don’t let me be sent here for her, please let me have gotten away…. _

His heart beat near her ear and she closed her eyes, listening awhile.  Until they both felt a little more calm.  

“There are better plans than running, y’know?  You can’t even find food here on your own.”  She chuckled a little before sniffling again.  

Ehrendil finally brought his arms up to come around her. It was true, he was rather helpless in this city, but he could always wander again, as the bear.  Get as far away from all civilization as he could. 

“Kalshen won’t let you anywhere near Lesara before we know anyway...but...I’ve heard of a few draenei who might help?”  She didn't look up or move, but rather continued hugging his middle.

When she said yet another name he knew, it twisted his insides even further.  _ This was no coincidence… _ he thought. “Kalshen? What does he care what happens to Ta’elesara? He was a poor druid…” He looked down at her, well aware how that sounded, coming from someone who gave himself over to his animal form. “I want nothing to do with either of them. With any of the order.”   
  
She felt him tense again and winced, wondering if she should just stop talking.  “And you won’t have to, I can’t take you there now anyway.”  She stopped as Ehrendil relaxed a little more in her arms, soothed by the insistence they weren’t going to either kaldorei.  

“Good,” he said.

“It would be stupid to go anyway, even if you weren’t upset by the idea.  Having order ties yourself.  He may’ve been a poor druid, but he’s an excellent marksman and they have all those sabers he trains now.”  She fell quiet once more, thinking it all over.  The coincidences sat wrong with her as well, Ehrendil’s fears shooting through her.  She calmed her own rattled nerves by moving all the pieces around in her mind like a game of chess, examining everyone she'd met recently along with every kaldorei she knew.

The recent attack by the order had nearly killed a few draenei.  Apparently they’d accidentally triggered an  _ unwitting  _ order assassin, but maybe it hadn’t been an accident after all?  

_ What if he was sent to investigate the draenei…?  That’s too perfect...too many chances.  They can’t predict people like that...can they?  Dil could’ve met anyone on that trail.   _ Absently, she rubbed his back, still examining current events like a giant puzzle.  

Then, with only a lingering touch, she released him, ducking under his arms in a fluid motion that left him surprised.  “You stay right there or I’ll have no choice but to make Kalshen help me track you down.  Got it?”  She forced authority in her voice as she grabbed a notebook from her very small and cluttered workstation and began scribbling diagrams with notes in gnomish.  

Ehrendil nodded, shakily, and turned, watching her work. Knowing he was caught, he returned to the bed to lay on it face first, balling one of her pillows up with his arms to make it to his liking.   “Yes,  _ Shana. _ ” He said, muffled from the pillow.

Rena turned slightly back toward him, unhappy about the tone, but thoroughly distracted by her calculations.  Frowning at them now, she chewed on the end of her pencil, then wrote a few more notes, mumbling to herself.

By the time she began muttering in gnomish, working in the language purely from the habit of so many years learning advanced math from them, she began pacing the room as well.  The thoroughly analytical process drained some of the emotion away and when she finished the final equation, she laughed in surprise before glancing over at Dil.

Schooling her expression with memory of the prior topic, her smile faded.  “This is all statistically unlikely…”  She mused in Darnassian as she sat on the end of her bed beside him.  “It  _ looks _ like a string of coincidences, but they don’t hold up.  At all.”  She snapped the notebook closed and poked his shoulder.  _  “You _ are far more likely to  _ be _ an Ethala’Aman than working for their order right now.  Controlling for all assumptions and checking probability...and just basic logic, really….”

Ehrendil snorted into her pillow and said something that sounded similar to “Outta your mind” 

“Nope.  Unless you know your lineage for sure, I’m far more in my mind than you are right now...in yours.”  She added as an afterthought.  “Genetic similarities, history with the order…”  She shrugged.  “You’re also more likely to be an  _ actual bear _ having a really trippy dream after eating some ghost mushrooms out in the Tanaris Desert.”  She frowned a bit at that.  “You don’t survive that scenario even if I take off now to save you.”

“The bear sounds more likely.” He said, lifting his head to meet her sympathetic gaze. “I am no Ethala’Aman. I have more in common with you than I do the nobility.” 

“I am NOT checking the probability we’re related.  That’s just wrong.”  Her detached air melted away with the last of her equations, steadily returning a sense of humor.  Her more serious expression faltered behind one of her smiles, obviously trying to cheer him up now.

That he smirked at. “I am all Kaldorei, to my knowledge. And you,” he made a show of inspecting her. “Well, your ears are far too round to be mixed with elf-blood.” 

She rattled off a decimal with a lot of zeroes.  “Depends on the dominant genes, how far back you go, and the chance some of your ancestors left with the Quel’dorei.”  She opened the notebook again and pointed out a string of numbers to him.  

Okay, so she did the math for that possibility too.  “I don’t know my lineage.  Also, that’s still a far greater probability than you being any sort of spy sent after me or people I know.”

“And the probability of you working for them?” He said, propping himself up on his elbows. “What if you were meant to snare me and bring me back?” 

Her nose wrinkled up for a brief moment before she responded.  “Almost equally unlikely, but still pretty out there.  If I’m working for them, it’s more likely as a spy against Lesara.  Again, very low probability.”  She sighed.  “Our brains are hard-wired for patterns, so while it  _ seems _ like an enormous amount of coincidence, they don’t hold up under statistical scrutiny.  Kalshen is Lesara’s brother, so of course I know them both.  The Emerald Dream was their mom’s way of getting him out of her hair.  He was the only one who stood up for his sister on a regular basis against Ysareline, you know?  I even checked the reverse flow despite knowing Lesara and her brother for years.  It all falls apart when you realize just how much foresight, manipulation, and planning they’d have to do.  They’d be running the entire alliance by now, and then why would they even care about us?  Why not just take direct control over their real target?”  She fidgeted with the notebook before looking over at him.

Ehrendil got about half of that, the rest flowing over him as if it were common for all the good it did him. “It does make more sense that they would want Ta’elesara than me…” he trailed off, still not convinced fully that one or both of them were not who they said they were. He buried his head back into her pillow, a mistake, since it was full of her scent, the honey sweet smell of her hair. “ _ Unngh _ .”    
  
“There are far better people than me to use for that.”  she nibbled at her bottom lip.  “But I’m the one who did all the math...you’d have to just...trust me...like I trust you.  Or…”  She trailed off as well, not really  _ wanting _ to finish.  After several moments she took a deep breath and forced the other option out.  “Decide if I’m worth the risk?  You can leave if I’m not.  I won’t stop you this time...I’ll...let you go.”  She forced calm on herself, but her voice carried a note of sadness, cracking a little at the end.   _ We’ve only known each other a few weeks anyway, you can let him go.  Especially if he doesn’t want....   _

“Might as well stay.” Ehrendil sighed, breathing out the honey scent of her and shaking his head. “I didn’t understand much of the math, but I’m pretty sure you’re not planning to murder me in my sleep.” 

A confused mix of concerned relief brushed her features and she sat in the small space next to his hips on the bed, her back to him, but turned slightly toward his shoulders.  “Stay because you  _ want  _ to...not because you ‘might as well,’ okay?”  She closed the notebook and hugged it to her chest.

Ehrendil looked up at her with a smirk, propping himself up on his elbows. “Didn’t I say that?”    
  
She pursed her lips at him, a responding smile fighting through.  “There’s a difference between ‘might as well’ and wanting, you know?”  She shoved the back of his shoulder with her fist in a playful way.

He moved with the punch, rolling away from her in an exaggerated way over on his side, then reached out and grabbed her, pulling her close after she tossed her notebook aside.  It hit the floor with a light smack and he buried his nose in her hair and neck, speaking softly. "I want to."   
  
Her responding hum escaped as half a content sigh and she snuggled in.  Warm.  “Good.”

In an effort to draw them even closer together, he almost hooked a leg around hers, but refrained at the last minute.  The result ended up an awkward gesture, running his bare foot down her lower leg instead. Rena giggled at him for it as he shifted around for a better position instead.  He loosened his grip on her so she could get comfortable on her own terms.    
  
Still amused, Rena copied his gesture, opening her hips against him in the process.  Her lack of a responding blush, however, indicated her mind wasn't quite back on a physical track yet.  After, she propped herself up on the elbow that was squished under her and slipped her other arm around his waist.  When she met his gaze again, a playful smile danced in her green eyes.  Neither of them wanted to linger over the prior topic, using play and cuddles as an excuse to abandon it entirely.

He grinned back at her till he felt the inside of her knee brush his and was suddenly hyper aware of their respective positions. He swallowed, going still against her in an effort not to grab her hips and pull her toward him, or worse yet, put his hand between her legs and feel the heat pooling there.    
  
Meanwhile, her mind still hadn't completely switched tracks and her brows knitted together with a brief frown.  “You okay?”  She pulled her foot away, but bent that leg at the knee, incidentally keeping her hips open, and made small comforting circles on his back with her fingers there.

_ "Mmmmnnngh... _ Rena..." Ehrendil groaned as she rubbed the small of his back. He managed a deep breath and slid his hand down her body, over her hip and down to her knee, gripping it tightly.  With great effort, he pushed her leg gently back in a position he could tolerate, where her legs were not open to his. "I'm fine," he said shakily. "Just....tempted."   
  
Finally aware of their respective positions as well, a familiar blush crept across her cheeks.  Though she also gave him an amused little smirk.  “Oops.”  She craned her neck and pushed up the bed with her toes so she could kiss the bottom of his chin before folding her arm between them and snuggling in.  “Sorry.”

Ehrendil heaved a great shuddering sigh and got both of his arms around her once more without touching anything inappropriate that he probably should and stroked her hair. "Don't worry about it."   
  
“I won’t.”  She grinned further, and kissed just under his collar bone this time.

If his hitched breath followed shortly by his warning snap at her ear wasn't enough, his plaintive cry of "Rena..." shortly after was more direct.  In his effort at resisting, he grasped a fistful of hair at the nape of her neck, only to let it go almost immediately.   
  
But not before she breathed in sharp and her head moved back, making it all the more difficult on him.  She released the breath with an aroused whimper.  Her fingers at his back tensed and she stilled, unsure any movement was safe now.  She looked up at him with a genuinely apologetic smile this time.  

“Maybe...maybe snuggling isn’t the best idea now?”  She couldn't keep the disappointed tone from her voice as she slid her arm out from under his, all the way around his waist and along his side in the process.

Ehrendil shook his head and held her close. “Perhaps not, but….” he pulled his fingers from her hair and ineffectively smoothed the mess he’d made. “I want to. Just quit teasing me.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re tempting enough as it is.” 

“Well, I didn’t  _ mean _ to, y’know?”  She tried snuggling again, moving her hand back in position and tucking her head down with her ear over his heart.  “Are you that worried you’ll hurt me?  I mean, we could go slow?  I...don’t wanna keep teasing you like this.”

“It’s fine, just….” He sighed, and held her close. “Hurting you is the last thing I want to do, and…” He trailed off, his heart beating loudly in his chest.  _ Kaldorei are bigger than humans as it is, and she’s so small... _ He wondered if she could feel him in this position, and the thought caused his cock to twitch, straining against his leather pants. He ran through a quick breathing exercise to try and calm himself, a simple 3 beat inhale, pause, 3 beat exhale. It did little for his raging hard on but he managed to control his heart-rate somewhat.   
  
Meanwhile, Rena kept absolutely still again, noticing what little his breathing did for the eager rock shoved in her hip.  “Maybe…”  She swallowed, ears fairly burning again.  “Aren’t there...y’know... _ other _ ways...without penetrating, I mean?”  She swallowed again, mouth feeling rather dry.  

Ehrendil groaned, his cock twitching once more, leaking precum from its tip and coating the inside of his pants.. He turned his sound of excitement into a laugh, a bit forced, but he managed to hold still against her all the same. “You are a wicked, evil woman.” he said, running his fingers down her spine. “I’m trying to be noble, and here you are playing the temptress….”   
  
“Well…”  Her brow furrowed.  “You sound like it kinda hurts now….”  She wrinkled her nose.

“It’s….” he trailed off, and shrugged slightly. _ How were you planning on finishing that sentence, hmm?  _ his mind taunted.  _ Tell her how much it aches and see if she wants to touch you, bear? And when you come at her lightest touch, then what?  _  “...It is not painful...just….”    
  
Rena looked up, studying his expression as he answered.  She bit at her lower lip and her brow furrowed a bit.   _ He’s a bad liar…. _  Gaze dropping to his shoulder, she propped herself up on her other elbow again, the corner of her bottom lip still tucked between her teeth.  The blush darkened as she swallowed and without looking, she slid her fingers under the lip of his leather pants.

The moment she began massaging, Ehrendil bucked his hips against her hand. True to his guess, it took a mere three strokes before he shuddered against her and spilled his seed onto her hand.  Eyes closed, he turned his face away, toward the pillow.  The darkened tips of his ears quivered.   
  
Rena watched him, her own blush vibrantly red.   _ Am I supposed to stop now?   _ She continued stroking through the heated mess.  Enrendil’s entire body had gone limp after his orgasm, leaving him of no help to her.  Not for determining proper etiquette.  Smiling soft and shy at the blush coloring his ears, she leaned forward and with parted lips, left an open-mouthed kiss on his collarbone.  “Better?”  

His face remained buried in her pillow and in her hair, not quite ready to face her even as she held his most sensitive member in her hands. He nodded instead. 

Finally, as he grew softer with no further reactions, she pulled her hand out, most of his release wiping off in the process.  “Good,” she chirped and dried her hand off at her hip before sliding it back around his waist.  Still propped up on one elbow, both embarrassment and arousal left her feeling flush, despite her attempts at casual snuggling.   _ Can’t believe I did that...Should I...still be? _  She kept her cheek tucked against his chest, head down.  Her hand at his back twitched.   _ He was so… _ her breath caught a little and she shifted her hips.  A feeble attempt at calming a needy ache while she sized them both up in her head and wondered if it would ever work.

He uncurled slightly, his hand finding a resting spot on her hip. Now that he could think clearly again, he felt guilty and uncomfortable that he'd had his pleasure and she’d had none. He debated with himself a few moments, wondering if he had the control to stop after she was sated. He thought he did.   
  
“Rena...do you want me to…? I mean, I can….if you want…”    
  
Without really thinking about it, she swallowed, blushing hotter, and hooked her fingers under the harness at his chest.  Her sex responded with an eager twitch long before she did, and she nodded over the rush of every part wanting his touch first.  Finding herself tongue-tied only made it worse.

Ehrendil felt the nod, the warmth of her cheeks hot against his chest. He let himself trace a single finger underneath the waistline of her pants, from hip to front. 

“Take these off.” He said, tugging at her pants. “I….I want to do this right, if you will let me…” 

Another nod before she shifted, the corner of her lower lip between her teeth again.  She wiggled out of her pants and kicked them over the side of the bed with somewhat stiff and awkward movements.  She snuck a look up at him before removing her shirt as well, setting the tiny gears dangling from her braid clinking against one another.    _ Breathe… _ she reminded herself, wondering just what ‘doing this right’ entailed. 

Ehrendil sucked in a breath as she removed her shirt too, and gently, almost reverently, cupped one breast, before trailing his hand down her stomach to rest between her legs. He propped himself up on his knees, watching her to see her reaction as he settled between hers, after asking her to spread them with a touch to her knee.    
  
Her breath quickened with every touch and she propped herself up on both elbows, shivering as she parted her legs for him.  Her eyes searched his before she smiled.  Nerves and excitement both sent another shiver dancing its way over her skin.

He rubbed his hands down her thighs to calm her shaking muscles, before getting down on his belly with his nose to her sex. He closed his eyes and breathed the scent of  _ her _ , not the honey sweet smell of her hair, and the bear stirred in response. He looked up at her, trembling a little himself in anticipation, and asked her again. “Alright still?”    
  
Her lips parted with the intense thrill charging up from where she felt his breath on her now.  The sensation almost exactly like a sky or rough drift dive, but lower, with more aching.  She took a deep breath and let it out shaky before rolling her lips inward for a brief moment.  She nodded, her ears burning until she heard her own pulse.  A distinct, tightening twitch where his breath hit set her quivering again.  She swallowed and wondered if he found her body’s eager reactions visible.

He noticed.  Mostly he didn't want to assume, but also he wanted a moment to draw this out even more in hopes he could keep himself calm. He saw her nod, her nervous breathing, and smoothed his fingers over her inner thigh once more. 

“You have nothing to worry about..." He practically purred, and bent his head to slip his tongue between her lower lips and lap at her clit with broad soft strokes, holding her thighs down in case she squirmed.

Mouth popping open nearly immediately, Rena drew in a sharp breath, gaze caught on the sight as much as the sensation.  Her fingers clutched at the blanket under her and she bucked unexpectedly with a soft, but involuntary cry of pleasure on the first lick at her clit.  

Coherent words evaded her as he continued until she couldn't watch any longer, falling back in her pillows with small, gasping moans.  Her hips strained against his firm hold as her fingers grasped and released the blankets at her side by turns.

The response left Ehrendil ecstatic, the taste of her driving him wild and he didn't want to stop. Letting go of her left thigh, he teased around her entrance with one trembling forefinger.  Still lapping at her clit, interspersed with tracing the outside with his tongue, he pressed the barest tip of his forefinger inside her.  Not even to the nail bed.    
  
_ “Nngh!  Please...” _  The pressure from his forefinger had her hips seeking it.  His tongue, however, stole her breath and kept it.  “I--”  She gasped.   _ Can’t...stand it...can’t take…   _ “More…”  She pled over her thoughts, hands moving up into her pillows.  “More….  Please...more…” she mumbled feverishly.

He pushed his finger to the second knuckle in one go, flicking her clit with his tongue at the same time. 

Rena whined when he pulled back, his tongue leaving her aching for more, but he wanted to watch her pleading expression as he pulled his finger almost all the way out only to slowly inch his way back in.  This time all the way. Only then did he dip his head again and took up the flat strokes of his tongue on her clit. 

Her back arched as she clutched the pillow behind her head from the back, her chin tilted up.  Tiny shivers coursed through her as he slowly pushed his finger all the way in and her eyes squeezed shut with a half articulated plea.  Her thighs tightened.  The combined sensations pulled a strained whimper as her body arched away from him, every muscle taut from build up.

He followed her movements, edging that finger out and back in, fucking her slowly as he licked her, curling his finger in a come hither gesture before dragging it back out. His tongue traced circles around her clit and over her inner lips.

A gasping cry escaped as he chased her movements, then her hips rocked against his grasp, meeting his finger for more.  Her back arched again and she grabbed one of his ears and a fistful of hair moaning and panting around his name with increasing urgency.  

_ “Mmmph!” _ Ehrendil moaned into her as she grabbed his ear, more surprised than anything.  He chuckled afterwards at her enthusiasm, and added a second finger to the first, curling them both and dragging it along the anterior wall of her vagina, seeking the spot that he knew to be in female Kaldorei and assumed was in a similar spot in human females.   
  
She shivered when he slid a second finger in, her thighs tightening again with another whimper.  She dropped her grasp on him to clutch the mattress and lean all the way back.  When his fingers found the spot he sought, her posture went rigid and her thighs clenched.  She gave a sharp, gasping cry before biting down on it and rocking and clenching in a pulsing rhythm around his hand, soaking it with pleasure-filled whimpers.

He groaned as she came on his hand, and his cock twitched at the sight and the smell of her, despite the fact he’d already had his release. He continued licking and rubbing her through her orgasm, and when she didn't push him away, he licked her clean, ending with his fingers while he looked up at her in smug satisfaction.    
  
_ “Dil…” _  She’d just decided he was going to kill her again when he stopped and she caught sight of him licking his own fingers.  Her brows knit together and her abs tightened with yet another shiver.   _ That is so sexy… _

“...Yes?” He said, after he’d finished licking every last bit of her juices. His ear had twitched when she said his name, but he hadn’t replied, too absorbed with the scent and the taste of her. It was a heady combination, and it went straight to his cock, turning his brain off in favor of more primitive pathways.    
  
_ Really, after all that I’m still blushing?   _ Her thoughts only made her blush more as she laid back and laughed.  “Nothing.  I almost thought you were gonna do it all over again.”  She started letting a bit of drowsiness settle in over the fluttering anticipation he wasn’t through with her yet.  She fought an impulse to hide under her blankets until he joined her.

“....Do you want me to?” He asked, trying to maintain eye contact and failing, stealing a glance back over her body. A nagging sensation tugged at his mind, but he brushed it aside and buried his face back between her legs before she could reply, licking her a bit too firmly in his eagerness.    
  
Rena had closed her eyes, feeling sleepy now.  She almost moved to burrow in the blankets after all when he was back between her legs before she could answer.  Instead, her posture stiffened with a sharp gasp.  “I--!” the only part of her response she managed.  Her calming breath quickened once more.

Her sudden stiffness was what reined him in, and he sighed against her and lifted his head. “Too much?”    
  
Meanwhile, one of the deckhands had returned, stepping on one of many scattered gold pieces in a trail to the engineer’s cabin.  

He frowned at the coin and looked around in the relative quiet, posture slipping into a coiled pose as he crept toward the room while silently reaching for the short sword at his hip.  When Rena cried out in what he assumed was pain, he was only a few paces from her open door and rushed in, shouting her name just as Ehrendil asked his last question.   
  
Rena stared wide-eyed at the outburst while the deckhand stood with his sword only partially drawn, staring back at the scene in front of him.  His eyes stopped on Ehrendil between her legs, trailing up along both of them from Rena’s startled expression, then back over Ehrendil.  Rena was so busy staring at his face, she failed to realize how she and Dil both effected the young kaldorei through his mirrored shock.

Ehrendil stared back with his own shock, though by the time the deckhand’s gaze had trailed up Renawyn’s form he was up on his knees, partially blocking the other Kaldorei’s view of her nakedness. Tense, but not aggressive, he noted the bulge in the other male’s pants, feeling especially protective of her after the incident with the pizza boy.

  
“Is Renawyn alright?”  The captain’s voice called in Darnassian from a further distance, the tinge of alarm clear and moving quickly closer.   
  
That seemed to startle the young deckhand in front of them “awake” as he stopped giving them an equal amount of staring.  He looked away, straightened and fumbled with the door handle.  “You uh...left this open.  Money outside…”  He mumbled as he shut the door behind him. “Well?”  Captain Tully demanded.

Ehrendil sagged back bonlessly as the deckhand retreated, heart racing, and looked back at Renawyn to gauge her response. These were her people, not his, and his first thought was how she’d handle them walking in on them, regardless of what she’d said earlier.    
  
“Well...Cap’n…”  The deckhand cleared his throat.  “Don’t think we need another hammock for the new guy next voyage after all…”  he stammered out.   
  
After a few moments of silence, the captain barked a  laugh and called back.  “People generally close their doors, unless they’re inviting more company.”   
  
Rena blushed three more shades of red at the teasing, trying very hard not to let her imagination dwell on the idea of company and how that would even work.  Cue her vision of Captain Tully at a pool in the caverns of time a few weeks back.  Naked and taking her from behind at a snowy hot spring.  The two of them  _ married  _ in some other timeline.  Thoroughly embarrassed now, Rena crawled under her blankets and hid.

Their laughter faded as the two moved away from the door and back up into the dining area, debating what the scattered trail of coin had to do with it.

The called response had Ehrendil looking back to the closed door. If he knew either of the two more, he might have responded with a jeer of his own, but as it was, he looked to Renawyn to judge how he should respond. When he saw her trying to hide under her covers, he chuffed at her and reached up to crawl over her to stroke her hair and rest his hand on her shoulder. 

“Renawyn?” he said softly, hoping to convey concern and get her to speak to him.    
  
She mumbled something back from beneath the covers, but the pillow swallowed most of it.

He chuckled at her and rolled to his side, wrapping his arms around her and the blankets, continuing to pet her down from her embarrassment by stroking her hair and making small bearish noises of comfort. 

“It’s alright to take pleasure that is offered….unless you are regretting being seen with me?” His tone was plaintive, as he realized it may be less than being seen nude and more about being seen with  _ him _ .    
  
“What?”  Her tone was surprised and somewhat confused as she wiggled around to look at him, lifting up the covers to indicate she’d prefer him under them with her.  She studied his expression with that sunburned-blush and a slight frown.  “It’s not...why would I regret that?”

His expression was unsure, and more than a bit sad, though it did lighten somewhat when she offered him the covers. He took his time getting situated, curling his taller body around hers, considering his words.

“Because….you have the higher standing between us. I…. surely you know...living with kaldorei...” he sighed. “Either of those two would be a better choice than me.”    
  
She huddled in as he explained and wrapped himself around her.  The expression he wore before and the tone of his voice had her rubbing comforting circles on his back after she wrapped an arm around his waist.  Then his words sunk in and she stopped, her blush darkening again.  She pushed the alternate timeline firmly out of her thoughts, fingers moving from circles to the Darnassian alphabet while she considered her response.   
  
“I’m only 23 y’know…” she finally started.  “But I’ve accomplished a lot.  I’m one of only a few people in my field and in high demand.  I have more money than I can ever really use.  I don’t need…”  She frowned and pulled away, only enough for a glance at his face.  “Even if I were poor...I’d still...I’d like to think maybe we’d still…”  She shrugged, brow furrowing.  “Did you choose me for status?”

“No” His response came on the heels of her question, unthinkingly. “No. I didn’t, I just… I just thought you might have been embarrassed to be seen with me after all. I am not the ...I wasn’t drawn to you for your status or your money.” He sighed, and looked at her. “Maybe it is best if you tell me why we are hiding under the covers?”    
  
“I’m cold?”  She responded in a way that suggested she really didn't think she was giving a satisfactory answer, but playing it off with a smile.  She tucked her head against him, hiding her face.   _ What’s he mean by accepting offered pleasure?  What we just did...or what the Cap’n said?   _ Both thoughts set her blushing, but now with an underlay of guilt.  She took long enough organizing a more serious answer that he might assume her playful pass off was all she intended giving.

Ehrendil smiled at her and rested his chin on her head, which was quickly becoming a popular pose for him. He made a show of rubbing her arms as if to warm them before settling in and wrapping his arms around her. “There. Now you are warm.”  _ And still naked…. _ he thought, swallowing. He pulled his hips away from her slightly, not wanting the temptation of the extra contact.    
  
Her cheek brushed against the rough leather of his harness and she frowned, reaching for one of the buckles.  “I am, but this is uncomfortable.  Not like it covers much anyway.”  She snuck a peek up at his face again with a small smile.

He tilted his head at her, looking down at his chest. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take it off….” He pulled away from her to sit up, undoing the buckles faster than she could alone. The leather had been worked with some oil since the first time she met him, making it more supple than it had been, but it was still stiff due to the thickness. Only seconds later he pulled it off over his head and tossed it on the floor with her shirt and pants. The week or so of working in the sun with it on had tanned the skin around it, leaving a faintly lighter color where the harness generally covered. 

Rena traced her fingers over the tan lines with a giggle as he settled back in next to her.  “Much nicer.”  She readily snuggled against him again.

“I am always eager to please you,  _ Shana _ .” He murmured into her hair as he settled down around her once more. He let his fingers trail along her shoulder and back, but he kept the touches chaste, never going below her hips or over to her front. 

With a content hum, Rena snuggled in further.  “And I promise you don't embarrass me.”  She yawned.  “Just a little shy, that's all.”

After moments of easy quiet between them, she murmured something back about his smile.  Already, she drifted in and out of sleep.

Ehrendil noted her change in breathing, and settled into his role as pillow for the foreseeable future. He let his mind wander, over the events of the day, the conversations going on outside her door, what possibilities the future might hold…. All while his fingers curled gently in her hair and down her back. 


	6. The Almost Deleted Extra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rena and Dil brave the crew on their way out to buy the poor druid some more pants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, a nearly deleted scene.
> 
> CHAPTER TWO TOO! TU-TU! Isn’t that what dancing bears wear? C’mere Dil!  
> (Note: Yes, this was so disorganized we were only on chapter two and impulsively dubbed this a second chapter within the second chapter. Because what is organization?)
> 
> Some explicit sentences in here, but these two somehow manage to mostly behave. Sorry about that. It ends abruptly in our old docs, so I added a tiny transition on the end after the rest of the editing. I'm getting lazier about editing, so hopefully this one doesn't show the fact I didn't reread it three more times before posting.
> 
> Next chapter will be short too but you will finally get a more proper introduction to the third member of our trio. Hope you enjoy!  
> \-------------------------

By the time Rena stirred gain, she’d turned around in Dil’s arms for easier breathing, held close against him.  If not for how naked she still was, nestled in his arms, she’d feel like a child.  He enveloped her from all sides and she laid quiet and content for some time, perfectly safe...secure.  Just breathing with him.   


“You awake?”  She murmured, rubbing her chin against their hands under it.

“Hmm…I am now,” he said sleepily, tightening his grip around her and unconsciously pressing his hips--and his erection--against her, before he was fully awake. When he was, he pulled away from her, breaking that contact. 

“Sleep well, Rena?” He said to distract her, probably unsuccessful by the hitched breath of anticipation that escaped her lips and tested his resolve.  He focused harder on distractions.  “It seems more of your crew has returned while you slept.” Indeed, a steady buzz of conversation leaked through the door from the main room, voices blurred into indistinction. 

His slight withdrawal left behind a swirling ache.  Rena tightened her hold on him in response.  With her own focus on their hips, no longer pressed together, and still half-asleep, she failed to realize she held his hand down on her breast.  She only hummed in reply.

While she may not realize where she'd pinned his hand, he certainly does, leaving him torn between pulling his hand away and squeezing. In the end, he did neither, and stayed as perfectly still as possible instead. 

“I am happy to note you do not steal the blankets in your sleep.” he said quietly, nuzzling her hair. “Or snore. This is…pleasant.” 

His voice pulled her back out of sleepy drifting, caught by a sudden need to stretch.  She gave in with a yawn before finally taking note of his hand and blushing.  Stuck in the motion, regardless, she uncurled, tensing throughout before relaxing again with a sigh.  Only after did she loosen her grip on his arm and murmur an apology.

“No reason for that, Rena. Go back to sleep.” he sighed, relaxing back against her, moving his hand to a more innocuous location.     
  
A bit more awake already, she instead wiggled around and inched up until they were face to face on her pillow with less than a foot of space between.  Being more careful and aware of his continued withdrawal, she folded her arm over her breasts before snuggling in.  She kept her hips bent away despite the tickle of interest coursing through her over the exact image of what they were avoiding, imagination only helped by how they woke up.  The idea of him taking what they both wanted.  She settled for smiling warmly at him and studying his face.

He blinked at her, but he smiled after and shifted to accommodate her. He couldn't help but glance down to view her body.  By the time he looked up again, into her eyes, the tips of his ears had darkened, even though his gaze remained steady. He hooked one of his legs over hers, drawing it between his at about knee height.    
  
Nibbling at her bottom lip, her eyes trailed along to the darkening eartips.  Impulsively, she reached out with her unpinned arm, caressing down the length of one to the tip, watching as his eyes slid shut.  Her heart fluttered as he tilted his head into the caress, ear twitching out of her grasp.  An involuntary reaction, judging by his expression of contentment.

Rena released both his ear and her lower lip at the same time, hand dropping behind him in his hair.  “I should...probably get dressed, huh?”

“If you wish.” Ehrendil replied, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “If you want to leave, it may be best for you to be clothed.” 

“Well...I don’t  _ want _ to, y’know?  I just thought it’d be easier on you.  I’m not quite so innocent I didn’t realize... _ you know _ ...how you woke up.”  She was still, however, innocent enough to blush over it and not look him in the eyes.  “Unless you want…?”   


She couldn't bring herself to finish the statement, though she wondered if maybe she should ‘do it right’ as well this time.  This thought led naturally into remembering the thorough tongue bath with an electric pulsing between her thighs and blushing up to her ears.  She ended with wondering how he tasted and closed her eyes for a deeper breath. 

“I’m not so ill-mannered that I would constrain your actions because of my...hardship.” He smirked at his own choice of words, and ran his hands down the outside of her arms, studiously trying to ignore her offer, though his cock twitched at the thought. “Please, do what makes you comfortable.”   
  
She opened her eyes with a small, sideways smile.  “Well...we could at least go to your cabin.  Quieter.  The walk will feel good.”  She paused here before smiling a little more lopsided.  “Either way, you’re still on the outside of the bed.”  She lifted her eyebrows at him.  “I’d have to climb over you naked to get my clothes, you know?”

“Hmm….  So I am.” He rolled onto his back and turned his head to look at her with a small smirk tugging his lips. “It doesn’t bother me to be climbed over.”   
  
She left one eyebrow quirked up as if to say ‘ _ Really _ ?’  “That’s gonna defeat the purpose of my putting clothes on.  I’m trying  _ not _ to get you all worked up again, y’know?”   _ Unless he really wants me to…. _  She blushed once more, thinking about licking him back and feeling she should just resign herself to being red around him on a permanent basis.  “I...suppose it’s not really very fair.…”  She sat up on her elbow and nibbled at her bottom lip.

Not telepathic, Ehrendil chuckled and sat up, moving out of her way. “Clothes or not, Renawyn, I don’t think I’ll be able to get the sight of you, as you are now, out of my head anytime soon.”

His movement made her realize too late how much she wanted to climb over him after all and instead she slid over the mattress to sit beside him and reach for her clothes.  She picked at the dried cum on the hip of her pants.  “Guess I better get a change of clothes.”  She balled them up and tossed them in a basket at the opposite corner of the small room.  The scratchy texture reminded her how there was more inside his pants than she wiped off of her hand.   _ Couldn’t have been a comfortable way to sleep,  _ she thought with the hint of a frown.

Ehrendil’s ears twitched as she spoke, but otherwise he didn't reply. He would have to find some way to clean his leathers without strutting around nude in Renawyn’s presence. With her sitting next to him now, he ran a hand down her back, trying to be gentlemanly and not stare too much. 

“We can clean yours up before we leave?  A little wet on the inside’s probably better than...well…”  She got up and grabbed a pair of jeans, facing away as she hooked her legs in and pulled them up.  “Sorry...I guess I didn’t think about that when I….”  That sentence trailed off unfinished as well while she pulled on her red filigree top and extracted her hair from the back.

Ehrendil wrinkled his nose at the thought of walking around in wet leather. “No, there is no need for apologies, Rena. It was….I do not regret it, save I have nothing to wear while these dry. I can wait. the option of wet leather doesn’t….” He trailed off as well.

“We can wait here until they dry?”  She brushed her hair.  “There’s more pizza.”  She grinned over at him.  “Or you could go out with my bed sheet tied around your waist while we buy you a change of clothes.  Or I can come back with some and leave you here...I mean...isn’t it kinda...you know...scratchy in there too?”  Her expression looked more wincing as she sat back down next to him, left leg folded in at an angle between them while her right draped over the side of the mattress.

“A bedsheet, Renawyn?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m beginning to think you want your crew to talk.” He tilted his head. “Or are you just so eager to claim me for your own?” 

The fire under her cheeks went from one to five in a second.  “I...well...they’re gonna talk anyway, y’know.”  Looking down at her hands now, she fidgeted.  “You’re a person...not property.”

Ehrendil looked as if he didn’t know how to counter that statement. “I can handle the walk back, it’s not that bad.” 

“Do you...want me to come with?  Do you even have a change of clothes?”  She toyed with the strings of gears tied off at the end of her braid while her mind still circled around the idea of claiming him as her own.   _ Do I need to do that?   _ She fought a bit of jealousy at the idea he might otherwise find someone else to lick.   _ Perhaps someone he’s not afraid of hurting. _  The idea made her sigh just a little before she covered it up with a smile.  “I just thought the idea of you wearing a bedsheet was amusing.”

He mirrored her smile, even as he shook his head at her question. “I do not, so if it would bring you amusement to see me wear your bedsheet, I do not mind the implications it will bring.” He stood, and turned to begin tugging the topsheet away from the rest of the bedding. 

She giggled and hopped off the end of the bed.  “Really?”  As he continued pulling at it she helped.  “I’ll get this.  You take care of your pants.”

Ehrendil’s replied with an amused huff of air, but he dropped the sheet and his hands went to the laces on the front of his pants. “You just want to see me unclothed.” he accused, though it’s good natured. He didn't turn away from her, so she got an excellent view as he peeled out of his pants, his hard-on popping free with a weighted bob. After he pulled them past his thighs, they fell to his ankles and he stepped out of one pant leg.  Then, using his other foot to hook the pants, he pulled them up to his hand.  Unbothered by Rena seeing him naked and hard, his hold by the waistband partially hid the sight only by happenstance.

Meanwhile, she focused more on finally wrestling the sheet free anyway before she turned around with it.  “It’s only--”  She cut off as she turned around got a full view, smile fading.  “...fair….”  She swallowed, overheated again and resisting the urge to fan herself.  Suddenly understanding _ why  _ women fanned themselves.  “Do you want me to…”  She held the sheet out to him, lost in daydreams about licking him and how he would feel inside the intense ache between her legs right now.  “Do it right?”   


Ehrendil dropped the pants in his hand, face slack as she asked him if he wanted her to….   _ Goddess! how good that would feel. _ He groaned as his cock twitched and leaked precum in a long clear string, his movement causing it to double back along his shaft.    
  
“I….” he looked at her dazedly, followed by the sheet she held out to him, though he failed to take it from her hands, staring at it instead.  He swallowed, not managing to get words across his lips. 

Rena stared back.  Attention snapping to his expression when he groaned and back down with a hint of aroused confusion before she realized what she said.  “Oh!  I...mean, uh...sorry, do you w-want me to...to turn my back?  The other thing was in my head...well not in my head.  Okay...it was….”  Her back-pedaled rambling trailed off as her brain caught up from her momentary panic, processing his reaction instead.  “I…”  She held the sheet clutched to her now and looked back up at his face.  “I...if you want...y’know…?”  She stepped aside so she was no longer blocking the bed.

“Yes.”  _ If she’s offering...Goddess she makes it difficult to think! _ He blinked at her, cock straining against the open air at the thought of her lips around him, large and darkly purple, the glans slick and gleaming from fresh exposure.

Rena’s lips parted as she took in his size visually.  “Well….”  She looked back at the bed beside her and then his face, smiling a bit nervous as she reached for his hand.

Her nervousness broke the spell she held over him, or perhaps the spell his own sexuality held over him. He took her hand and turned his hips away from her. With his other hand he took the sheet from her nervous fingers. 

"I think I should take this," he said, raising the sheet slightly. "I…. You don't have to...I didn't...."

“I know.”  She smiled up at him, but let him take the sheet.  “I want to...but if it’s too much for you...we can wait.”

“It looks to me as if it’s too much for you.” He said in reply, folding the sheet in half longways twice before wrapping it around himself as a kilt. It turned out nicer than expected. It sat low on his hips and did little to hide his bulge.    
  
She giggled at the tent-shape the sheet had taken on.  “Well, we can’t go out there with you like that.”  She sat on the end of her bed, leaving plenty of room for him.  “It’s only that...I don’t really know what I’m doing and you seem...a lot more experienced…?”  She shrugged.  “I don’t know, I guess I don’t wanna mess up.”

Ehrendil watched her a few more moments before sitting next to her on the bed, close enough their thighs touched. “It’s not something you can mess up, unless you let your teeth touch,” he said, booping her nose. “It will go down in a moment, and if it doesn’t… well, I am already dressed in your sheet.” He smirked at her.

“I’m not sure what the connection is on that last one?”  She gave him a bemused smile and bumped her shoulder playfully against his arm.  “The sheet doesn’t actually look half bad on you.”

Ehrendil laughed, and after some not-so-inconspicuous adjusting, managed to not look quite so interested. “Better?”

Extra amusement colored her responding smile, bordering on coquettish, and accompanied with her usual blush.  “Less visible, at least.” 

He looked down and shrugged. Sighing, he picked up his pants and rolled them up. “After you, Renawyn,” he said, looking at her and then tilting his head toward the door. 

She hopped off the bed, smiling possibly a bit too much now.  His sheet-kilt entertained her too much for the dread of passing crew on their way out.  She grabbed the pizza, intending at the very least to leave it with him tonight, and shoved her feet into a pair of boots.  After scooping up the pack she usually carried around town and slinging it over her shoulder, she took a deep breath and let him get the door for her.

He followed her out of the room and into the hall. Despite his earlier protests at being displayed as her trophy, he followed her brazenly into the main room.  Only someone teasing  _ her _ for his current attire would truly upset him. 

Despite the noise, there were only five crewmembers about.  The captain, who smirked a bit roguishly as Dil came out wrapped in a sheet, shook his head with a bemused smile before focusing on his book again.  Ehrendil’s ears had dropped under that gaze, even as his eyes had found the older kaldorei first.  Wary.  Another deckhand and a female kaldorei who worked the masts were too busy arguing over the card game between them.   


Only one of the two dwarves said anything.  A tipsy-looking female who complimented Dil’s kilt and gave Rena a wink.  “Treat ‘er well lad, we expect ‘er back ‘fore we set sail!”

Ehrendil turned to look at the pair of dwarves with furrowed brows, confused as to why they would say as much. “Ah...yes. I will.”    
  
They made it to the open air on deck having endured little else and Rena sighed with a bit of relief as they descended the ramp to the docks.  “I was half afraid they’d start cheering and making bawdy jokes.”  She giggled and looked over her shoulder at him.

He smiled back at her. “Good to know they’re better than you give them credit for.” 

“So...should we take you out shopping for new pants, or just drop you off at home?”  She asked as she climbed into her chopper parked nearby and kicked down the sidecar for him.

Getting into the sidecar without undoing his makeshift kilt proved trickier than it looked, and he took his time so he didn't end up with a pile of fabric around his ankles. “I will be nude until these dry otherwise….”

“Might be easier to shop though once they are...dry, I mean.  I could...drop you off at home and leave you there if you’re worried about...y’know….”  She looked down at him in the sidecar.  “Or you could continue wearing my sheet.”  She handed the pizza box down to him and hooked her bag on the back of the chopper.  “Although...I think I might have something that’ll prevent the sheet from falling off…”  Fully turned around in her seat, she dug around in the bag behind her, searching for something, and upon locating them, helped him pin a few strategic spots firmly in place.

They ended up buying a few pairs of pants and some shorts before she drove him home.  The real test would be soon enough, if Ehrendil set sea with her.  She tried not to worry over how he would take it, or what might happen to him if he stayed ashore without her.


	7. A Talk With the Captain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shore leave is over and Ehrendil has decided to set sail with the crew, but life at sea has been harder for him than expected. After weeks of avoiding the other kaldorei on board, especially the captain, Tulosa finally pushes for a necessary conversation.
> 
> Notes at the end for this chapter as there are a lot!

Late in the evening, or possibly early, found Ehrendil out on the top deck, having snuck out of the room he shared with Renawyn.  Leaning against the railing, he looked up at the stars, and basked in the light of the full moon. 

Being out at sea had been more unnerving at first than he’d let on, with the open nothingness and the intense sun beating down day after day, only the sails for shade.  A poor substitute for trees, in Ehrendil’s opinion. Only in the cool night air with the moon reflecting on the waves did he feel at ease, and he left the warm bed Rena so graciously shared with him, as well as Rena herself, to do so. 

She had spent most of the day underwater with the dive team, one of her actual, important jobs around the ship, and when she’d gotten back, had been dead tired.  She fell straight into a sleep so deep he didn’t think she’d wake before morning, let alone while he was gone.

Unknowingly, his movement out on deck caught the Captain’s attention, who watched from a casual perch in the rigging.  Unlike previous nights, however, Tulosa decided on attempting an overdue conversation with the wary druid.   


When it was clear the other kaldorei remained unaware of the old rogue, Tulosa grabbed a rope and swung down onto the deck with a light step a few paces behind.  He purposefully made just enough noise that the waves crashing against the hull didn't swallow it.   


Ehrendil startled at the sound anyway, barely preventing his first instinct, and not shifting into something with claws and teeth.

“Ocean’s kinder at night.”  Tulosa commented, keeping his manner relaxed and voice soothing as he leaned against the rail just a few paces away.  He looked out at the moonlit waves, hoping the lack of direct attention would put the druid more at ease.

Ehrendil’s ears went up and twitched as he watched the captain out of the corner of his eye.  “It’s easier to forget we are the only things out here when it’s dark,” he offered, his ears going back down, a bit lower than baseline. Something about Tulosa set him on edge, jarred loose some old memory, vague and half-formed, though the other Kaldorei never did anything to give Ehrendil reason for that feeling.  He’d been relatively neutral about Ehrendil’s presence aboard his ship. 

“We’re never the only things out here, no matter how calm the waters look from above.  Maybe Ren will show you that someday.  If you don’t go running back kissing the land after this voyage.”  The captain smiled over at him, a bit smirking, before a brisk wind concealed most of his expression behind midnight-blue hair.  He leaned far more casually on the railing now, hoping his easy posture took the edge off the druid’s obvious tension.

“Most of those wish to eat us, or ignore us, so I don’t think they count.” Ehrendil’s ears drooped another notch, and he leaned heavily on the railing. “I miss trees. The forest. How do you stand this life?” 

Tulosa laughed, though it was good-natured.  “The freedom, druid.  Pick your crew well and you’ll find less trees also means less places a shadow can hide.”  His tone remained genial and he gave no outward indication he meant anything extra by his choice in phrase.  Then, after a beat, his voice softened while he added, “Ocean’s in her blood too….”

“I know.” Ehrendil looked down at the water lapping against the hull of the boat.  _ I’ve been a bear too long….   _ He wondered if he could even remember how to change his shape to something different. Water based, perhaps. He’d seen the smooth skinned mammals following their boat from time to time, he wondered how hard it would be to take on their form. 

“She’s...different around you.”

Ehrendil flicked up an ear and tilted his head at Tulosa, studying him briefly, but the captain continued watching the sea. Pensive, but otherwise unreadable.   


“Maybe it’s because I don’t look at her as a child.” 

The smirk returned as Tulosa pulled his windblown hair over his ear and looked more fully at the other kaldorei.  “She acts  _ younger  _ around you.  And I’ve known her since she was a child.  A rather serious child.”  He looked away just as quick, back out over the water, pondering that change.

"She told me she was a stowaway," Ehrendil said with a small smile, the offspring of the one anyone with eyes would have seen him sporting when he looked at Rena. "She can be herself with me--I don't think that's the case with those dwarves she works with."

“Aye.  An’ we all thought she was a boy for years.  Took seeing her in a diving suit after she returned from her studies before we knew the truth.  Only a few years ago now.”  He chuckled and scratched idly at his scruff of a beard before following it up the side of his jaw and into his hair, pulling back more breeze-blown strands.  “I think she just works extra hard to prove she’s worth everyone’s efforts on her behalf.  The dwarves are her archaeology professors, the engineers depend on her, and I arranged all of her training.  It seems in all cases, she is eager to please and hates to disappoint.”  He gave Ehrendil a more serious and meaningful look.   _ Take advantage of that and I’ll keelhaul you. _

“I think the disappointment will go the other direction.” Ehrendil replied before he’d thought if that’s what he  _ should _ say. “I just hope she doesn’t tire of my faltering and hesitation before we get back to shore.” 

Tulosa responded with a short hum, something between a grunt and an abandoned laugh.  After openly studying Ehrendil’s body language a bit longer, weary and slumped over the railing, Tully braced his hands against the rail in front of them once more, watching the ocean pass.  It looked as if the druid hadn’t slept well since they left shore.  “You haven’t…?”

“I want her to be sure.  And I...I do not think she is. She looks at me with desire, yes, but there’s also unease. Uncertainty. And now that we are here, she’s been very...focused on her work. Perhaps it is for the best that we haven’t.” 

The captain smirked and shook his head.  “Ever occur to you you’re making things unnecessarily worse for yourself?”  His tone suggested exasperation, though it was with the situation under discussion rather than Ehrendil himself.

It got Ehrendil’s attention, and he straightened, looking back at the Captain with not quite a glare. “If you thought I should have stayed on shore, you shouldn’t have agreed to let me on your ship.”   


“Could toss you overboard now,” Tulosa countered, both calm and amused.  “Maybe you’ll tap into that aquatic form you’ve neglected.”   


With far less of a smile, his thoughts circled around the weeks before Rena hired the druid and what must have been an incredibly vivid, interesting dream.  She’d gotten clumsy and panicky for days until he finally confronted her.   _ ‘I saw you naked, and we were married!’  _ She’d practically shouted at him before running off….

And returning with the druid in toe.  He’d stopped seeing her as a child too late.   


“Or you’ll get lost at sea,” Tulosa finally said, resigned surrender in his voice rather than a jealous wish.  He had no more wish to harm the other man than to see Rena upset by his loss.

Ehrendil blinked, the even tone, combined with the threat made him unsure of what response to give, but he did turn to face the Captain rather than the water. “You always threaten people aboard your ship?”  _ I could probably manage to get back to the boat, _ he thought, already reaching tentatively for the long-disused form. 

Tulosa looked over just barely at Ehrendil before laughing out over the water.  “I’m not tossing you overboard, druid.  Not yet.  But you might consider a swim for once during Ren’s dive tomorrow.  We’re heading for a particularly gorgeous stretch of kelp around an old shipwreck.  Might find yourself forgetting your trees down there.  With her.”

Ehrendil rolled back on his heels, still watching Tulosa warily. “My aquatic form is still more bear than it ought to be.” He offered after some time with no further reaction from the other Kaldorei. He turned back to the water. 

“Continue hiding out on deck then.  When we reach Stormwind port you can go hug your trees out in Elwynn rather than my engineer and become her port wench for as long as she puts up with you.”  He smirked over at Ehrendil.  “Though if you’re going to let such small things stop you from an honest try, you definitely don’t deserve her in the first place.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t  _ try, _ ” the druid said with more heat than he intended. That port wench jibe stung. “But I’ve watched her in the water, it is her element.”  _ And I’m a floundering bear to her otter in the water. _    


The captain responded with quiet contemplation for some time after that.  When he finally spoke, he’d pushed himself away from the railing, turning to Dil and leaning just one elbow on it instead.  “Ren habitually mirrors what people give her.  She’s never been anything but professional with the dwarves, because they are professional with her.”   _ She distances herself from me for the same reason…I just hadn’t realized it until I saw her around you. _  He shook his head.  “I don’t think she does it on purpose.”

Ehrendil laughed. "So I guess you think she...that I..." He shook his head. "I give her nothing but my respect, and my interest in her. " he turned to mirror the Captain’s pose. "Whatever you're trying to do, just be direct. I've had my fill of veiled threats and doublespeak. I mean you and your crew no harm, least of all Renawyn."

“My point is only that if you are uncertain, she will be uncertain.  Whatever the two of you do, she’ll mirror your lack of confidence.”  His ears both bent lower as he looked the druid over, struggling not to sigh.  “As for the rest.  I only issued a warning, no threats.”   


When Ehrendil opened his mouth to counter this, Tulosa quickly overrode him.  “I run a background check on everyone who steps foot on my ship.  You did not come up clean.”   _ Let’s be direct then, druid. _

Ehrendil’s ears flattened down against his head, but he kept eye contact. "Must have been clean enough, as I'm still here. I guess my decade spent wandering in the woods must have been good for something." 

“You came up  _ dead _ ...and I don’t much like the names you were connected with.”  The captain’s tone and expression both held something like sympathy, rather than accusation.  They were both on the run from the same people, after all.

"Dead?" A flicker of hope flashed across his face. When he realized Tulosa wasn't playing, relief left him light-headed, even laughing a time or two. "Dead. Well...I was starting to wonder why I hadn't been caught..."

Tulosa smiled with him, knowing that sense of joy from experience.  “I took the liberty of recording a different name in your paperwork, Dilaran Kele’therin.  An old friend of mine, similar enough name you can still answer to what Ren calls you.  Would’ve said something sooner if you weren’t determined to hide away from me.”

"That's.... Thank you. I should have thought...." He shook his head, still grinning at his good fortune.

“There are conditions.  Until you meet my primary condition, you will stay hidden aboard this ship at certain ports on my order, and have a guard detail at others.  When we reach port in Stormwind next, you will submit to a thorough scan from Justice Erutaes Na’Mhorym.  That is the primary condition.  If you cannot meet it, you will say your goodbyes when we reach port in Stormwind again and not set foot on my ship.  For everyone’s protection, you understand?”  A muscle ticked in Tulosa’s jaw, but it was the only sign he was not as relaxed as he pretended.   


Depending on how thoroughly they’d tapped the druid’s mind, a faked death and his seeming innocence didn’t guarantee he’d escaped.  Tulosa wasn’t even guaranteed that much.

Ehrendil nodded, though he turned his head at the justice’s name to look askance at Tulosa in a surprisingly bird like gesture. "A friend of yours? I've had my fill of priests with less than pure intentions. You trust him?"

_ As much as I can trust anyone.   _ The justice had at least proven he opposed the Order of Mysteries, several times over.  “He’s my father and I would not send you to him otherwise.”

Ehrendil’s ears twitched up with surprise, eyebrows lifting, and he turned away from the water, leaning back against the rail. He exhaled a short laugh and looked back at Tulosa with a smirk. "Renawyn suggested that I go to Ta'elesara for the same thing, when I began to remember. I think I'd rather go to someone who was not so involved. If I am a threat, if I did not truly escape.... It's best for everyone to know sooner rather than later." 

“I’m glad you understand.  It may also comfort you to know Justice Na’Mhorym helped get Ysareline convicted in the first place, as did Ta’elesara.  Although while she  _ is _ ‘off the map,’ Lesara makes a poor alternative anyway.  Excellent healer, empathic, but absolutely lousy with the sort of mental work her mother favoured.  Thankfully.  Her information and understanding would also be outdated.”

Ehrendil held his arms across his chest and looked away with another nod. He was not looking forward to having this Justice peer into his head. "Was that all, Captain?" His voice was flat and his eyes downcast. 

Tulosa studied him a bit longer before patting Dil’s shoulder, frowning as the man tensed.  He turned it into a vaguely dismissive gesture as he headed in the direction of his cabin, suddenly tired.  “Aye.  For now.”

Dil stayed out long enough to watch him leave before heading back to a sleeping Renawyn and her warm bed. 

With a pleasant murmur, she turned in her sleep and tucked herself up against him as he curled around her.  Eventually, the steady rhythm of her breathing lulled him to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The third member of our trio FINALLY gets a proper introduction of sorts! Why did this take so long? Well, purely because Rendilosa didn't start out as a trio. In fact, at this point Tully was actually a borrowed character I'd gotten permission to write a version of from his original player. 
> 
> So, credit goes to D. Reynolds for the initial details of Tulosa and his name, these days they only share vague similarities in background but I still have permission to use the name and what-not. D. Reynolds (Henceforth: Player!Tully) also helped create some of the basic structure for the Order of Mysteries and shadowsworn (the organization Tully is on the run from and his role within it) lore way back when. 
> 
> Also, the scene Tully and Rena keep referring to involving naughty times in a vision was purely because, in their very first, original incarnations about a decade ago, the original Tully, played by Player!Tully and Rena were an item and ended up married where she eventually served as first mate and engineer on his ship, the Tal Shanre (also named by player!Tully). 
> 
> This revelation came about from some side RP with another player entirely who took Rena well-gazing at the caverns of time. She was trying to find out about lost family and loved ones she might be able to track down in her own reality and the well instead showed her an x-rated version of what once was with Tully. I probably wouldn't write that element these days but it's too much effort to edit it away at this point. 
> 
> As for Rendilosa's Tulosa, I thought about changing the name since they ended up so different, but player!Tully insists he really doesn't mind and Tel and I have gotten rather fond of it in connection to this character. Also, I can't think of a name that still fits other than maybe making Tully his last name and dropping the Tulosa part entirely. I dunno. Meanwhile, I have learned my lesson about borrowing characters/names. 
> 
> Never again. In fact, because he has little bearing on the plot so far, Tulosa's father has been changed from player!Tully's Antagonis to Erutaes, an original creation anyway since I had yet to play with this very different version of Antagonis. They still share the same family name though, so Na'Mhorym is another name created by player!Tully. At the time, player!Tully talked frequently about probably being done with the old rogue/captain for good or I'd've never even asked to begin with. Credit where credit is due. Expect links in the future if player!Tully ever gets around to his own online presence/book writings.
> 
> TLDR if you meet a Tulosa in game, he's probably not from this story or an AU of it (and also not bi--original Tully only likes the ladies). 
> 
> Despite getting a proper introduction here, we still hadn't decided to make them a trio. We were thinking of doing it with the deckhand that caught them, maybe, but after getting permission, it ended up being Tully a few scenes after this point. 
> 
> Finally, since they're already on arc-diving location, you can bet they've been out to sea at least a week, because I do not follow game-logic in travel distances/time. In my head everything takes days to cross, at least, with lots of "boring" space that gets condensed in the game to make it playable. I follow the whole Elywnn takes about 7 days by horse (stopping to make camp), at a moderate pace, to cross west-east theory. Though I fudge this detail a lot when RPing in game.


	8. Kelp Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dil takes Captain Tulosa's advice and finds a world of natural wonder underwater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the fluff this chapter!
> 
> It ends with some naughtiness too, but these two just keep getting teased for it. 
> 
> As for the diving portions, I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed the underwater zones of Cataclysm. However, I toss a lot of that easy-game-mechanic version of underwater excavations out the window anyway. While I use water breathing potions rather than air tanks and gear with cold resistance, I do still give Rena a mask/comm device so she can open her mouth and speak without swallowing a bunch of salt water. I don't know. I reason that the biggest reason those things were available to heroes in the cataclysm is because that was a special save-the-world situation and not a routine archaeology/historical sort of dive. 
> 
> Also, a lot of real-world diving research went into this, helped a whole lot by my co-writer. In short, I also paid attention to what actually happens to a real human body when going from the pressure at greater depths to the surface too fast, things like that. Also, I'm pretty sure underwater arc in Azeroth is still going to take a lot of the similar care the real world requires because you can't exactly expect to shove a temp/pressure control potion down an artifact's throat and have it not fall apart because you raised it too quickly from its place underwater without any easing or proper care/precautions.
> 
> Finally, yes, Rena has a digital gnomish camera of some sort on her goggles.
> 
> Thanks for your patience awaiting this next scene and all the kudos thus far. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> * * *

By the time Rena woke, Dil had curled around her, heavy with sleep in that way she knew he’d been up for much of the night again.  She wiggled around in the bed and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes, frowning down at him with a bit of concern.   


Busy as the voyage kept her, she saw the toll just the first few days aboard took on him.   _ I hope he’s not miserable out here...I think he might be. _  And if he was?  She sighed and kissed his temple before scooting to the foot of the bed so she could more easily climb over him without waking him too early.   
  
Today was the  _ Ishnu Falore _ dive, the waves against the hull soft enough Rena already knew it wouldn’t need canceling again.  She looked forward to it, despite the trouble with Dil.    


_ Sister Luck,  _ as it translated in common, was almost legendary.  The quel’dorei ship had gone down laden with rich nobles and artifacts dating back to Queen Azshara’s reign.  The wreck finders took no chances in recovery, hiring Rena’s team immediately after verifying the find.   


Her mind dwelled on it with a mix of excitement and worry over how poorly Dil was taking life at sea.  They still had at least a full week before they left for port again, not to mention future voyages.

_ I’m not making him happy...he’s miserable...and I’m too small for him…. _    


The vision with Captain Tulosa followed closely on the heels of that.  They'd certainly had no problems.   _ Was he smaller?   _ She shook her head with a blush and dispelled those thoughts, feeling extremely guilty.   _ I don’t know what I’m doing… _ .  
  
Shoving away her thoughts, she pulled her dark green wetsuit on, minimal gear over it.  Then, while binding her hair out of the way, she padded barefoot to the deck.  Mental prep and her checklist, along with the excitement of the dive pushed aside her worry for now.    


Much of their work today involved thorough sketches and a picture collage of the outside of  _ Ishnu Falore _ .  They also took a detailed study of the lifeforms growing around her outside, along with a few samples.   


As usual, Rena zoned completely into the work and minding of her equipment.  Just as she felt the itch of her water-breathing gills fading for the fourth time, McGullin announced a break over the comm system.   
  
The team withdrew, data in tow, weaving through the kelp forest growing around the wreck, and out to the clear water for the _ Tal Shanre _ .  When they broke the surface, a good five minutes remained on their gills, gasping along the neck.  Rena always found it a weird sensation, like someone tickled too hard at her neck while her lungs and mouth took over the task of breathing once more.

_Meanwhile_ , _completely_ _unknown_ _to_ _anyone_ _on_ _the_ _dive_ _team_ ….

Dil woke shortly after Rena left, the Captain’s words still echoing in his mind. At sea, there was little for him to do with the dive teams away.  The rest of the crew knew their places and jobs so well Dil felt more like a hindrance than a help. 

He stood and stretched, deciding that if he was going to dredge up his long-disused aquatic form, he ought to do so on an empty stomach. Not needing any gear was certainly a benefit, and he headed out onto the deck wearing just a pair of tough linen shorts. With the ship already anchored, he didn't fear he’d be stranded, so he slipped off the aft using the diver’s platform, straight into the 60 degree water. 

_ Cold! _ So cold it took his breath away, and his mind stuttered for a moment before he shifted forms.

He’d meant to try for one of the sleek porpoises he’d seen following the ship on the way out of the harbor.  Spinning around in a tight circle and twisting his head he saw he’d gotten the color right, at least, but felt more flexible.  As such, he knew he'd shifted into the sea lion form all druids first learned. 

It was a change from the bear, the movements unlike either form he knew well. He spent more time than he ever cared to admit re-learning how to swim. With the slow current in this part of the ocean, he drifted only a small amount, not too much.  Once he got the hang of flippers instead of paws or feet, he explored in the direction the divers went. 

His first real foray underwater took his breath away, for an entirely different reason than the cold. Long strands of kelp swayed in silent columns under the water, their rooted ends barely visible in the rocks below. The sunlight broke through in individual beams, leaving the rest of the underwater forest murky and shaded. 

Going from the openness of the sea above to this, most would feel smothered, but this reminded Dil of home. He spent the next hour or so swimming among the kelp strands, brushing up against them, and relishing how the blades hugged his fur. The fish, recognizing his form as predatory, kept their distance, though he chased after a few schools anyway. Unsuccessfully.  He still lacked the grace of a real pinniped. 

By the time Rena and her crew broke the surface, he bobbed a few meters away.  On his back in an un-seal lion-like pose, he flipped his hind flukes just enough he remained stationary. 

One of the dwarves broke the surface first, close enough he startled Dil.  In his surprise, Dil floundered and forgot the undulating movements that would propel him away faster.  Instead, he dog paddled in retreat from the ‘sea monster,’ barking his distress. 

The flailing drew the dwarf’s attention as the other divers surfaced only moments after.  “If that ain’t tha ugliest sea lion ah’ve ever seen!”  The dwarf laughed, speaking in accented common.  He kept his distance though, swimming out for the ship with gear in tow.  The dwarven woman, McGullin, swam close behind him, agreeing.

It took the sound of the dwarves’ voice before Dil realized what he swam away from.  He ducked his head at the tone of the words and the laughter.  Slipping back under the water, he put a length of kelp mat between him and the dwarves. His sleek form easily maneuvered between the fronds without getting tangled.   
  
Rena, on the other hand frowned at the dwarves.  “Aw, you scared the poor thing.  Besides, he’s got that so ugly he’s adorable sort of thing going on.”  She giggled, her voice in soothing tones aimed at Dil when he resurfaced.  Even so, she kept her distance.    


Despite a few noises of vocal soothing, she gave him more distance while avoiding typical signs of aggression, such as looking directly at him.  Even so, she took note of the distinct ruff around his neck, grey speckled instead of brown, too-long ears, and a somewhat ursine muzzle.    


“Hey...I don’t think I’ve seen one quite like you before.”  After Rena pushed a button on her goggles, the  lenses shifted. A few clicking sounds followed their new position.

Dil sounded a plaintive call, similar to something for pup-attraction. Or possibly a greeting, Rena thought, watching him disappear under the gentle waves.    
  
Rena swam for the ship instead of giving chase, handing up her supplies and data, but keeping her goggles.  She popped another water breathing potion from a small flask in the pouch of her diving vest.   Then, rather than climb aboard, she swam a few paces out again.     
  
“Aren’t ya starvin’ by now, girl?”  McGullin chided.   
  
“I could eat, but I wanna see if I can get more pictures, y’know?  He didn’t seem territorial and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one like him.”   
  
“Ach, lass.  He swam off somewhere an’ the rest of us are hungry.  Ye know ye can’t be out here alone with a creature like that an ye definitely need a dive partner for th’ kelp.  After lunch we’ll look fer ‘im?”  McGullin waved dismissively at her.

In the distance, as McGullin distracted Rena, Dil popped up where he saw her last, spotting her already back at the boat instead. He took a breath and dove back under the water after them, coming up to the boat. With the water so clear in this area, those on the boat saw the dark shape head directly for Renawyn.    
  
“Ren, comin back hot!”  Both dwarves shouted warning.  As McGullin reached for a harpoon secured nearby, Rena turned a knob on the side of her goggles, finning back for the ship and hoping the stun pulse shield charged in time.    


The whole thing happened too fast.  Dil brushed against her legs before surfacing next to her with a snort and a spray of water, jaw gaping happily, but looking like an aggressive display of teeth.  He gave another warbling cry and swam a loop around her in a tight circle, showing off as well as preventing her from climbing on board.

“Druid in the water!”  The captain shouted back in Common, alerted by all the panic.  Almost too late, as Rena’s stun pulse finished charging, hand already back at her goggles to activate it.  Worse,  McGullin had the harpoon ready to drive him off.

At Tulosa’s shout, Dil stopped his loops around Rena in favor of bobbing next to her. Then he saw the far-too-close harpoon. With a bark of alarm, he dove away, headed under the ship. 

_ That was Dil?  Oh...that was...where did he go? _  “Dil?!”  Rena called over the dwarves making a boisterous fuss about fool-headed kaldorei.  While they exchanged words with Tulosa, Rena looked around.  She dialed the charge back down.  The high-pitched whirring faded to a din as the energy dissipated.  Adjusting her gear and calming her breath, she dove as well, just under the surface for a look around.

A murky shape hovered under the shadow of the ship, a good ways below her. Dil took no chances with that harpoon. However, when he noticed her looking around underwater he swam a few feet toward her, stopping before he left the safety of the ship’s shadow. Right at that line, he blew a bubble ring up at her. Far enough down, by the time they reached her, she could swim through the largest before it broke apart with the rest. 

She reached out for one as they tickled past her.  Gaze following their path down, she gave him an apologetic smile.  The distance between them meant he couldn't see her expression anyway, despite the transparency of her comm mask.  She adjusted her weights and air pressure enough she descended vertically before she beckoned him.

He responded haltingly at first, like a genuinely skittish, wild creature and not a druid playing at shapes. However, the moment he reached her, he pushed his muzzle to her outstretched hand, and then brushed against her as he circled her once more. Jaw gaping, he exhaled another cloud of bubbles under her that tickled her skin and hair as they worked their way to the surface. 

Close enough now, Dil heard her when she giggled.  However, a louder voice, not hers, squawked through in dwarven-accented common.  Rena responded briefly in the same language, reassuring McGullin, and then finned around, following Dil as they descended together.

“I almost stunned you silly y’know?”  She told him in Darnassian.  “McGullin is still grousing about safety protocol.”

He led her back to the kelp forest, rushing ahead and doubling back, circling around her once more, before darting ahead again. He rolled and spun as he passed her, and the next time he doubled back along the path, he booped his nose against her chest. 

Rena giggled over his obvious excitement, picking up on it with an eager relief.  “Yes, yes, you,”  she laughed.  By the time he looped around her again, she hit the proper depth of her descent and shifted to a neutral buoyancy.  She kicked forward with just one fin, hands together and palms out, gliding between the kelp after him, pushing the bundles away and behind her.

He zoomed past her again, popping back up to the surface for another breath and diving back down in a fraction of the time she took.  After he found her again, he slipped in and out of the kelp fronds, not so much leading her as criss crossing her path. 

The kelp eventually opened up into a small clearing, and he shot forward for a loop in the space, making the kelp sway with his passing. After his flourished gesture of display, he stopped and turned toward her, watching her admire this place he’d taken her. 

She'd grinned fully at him the whole time.  Accustomed to kelp forests and clearings, as beautiful as they were, his lively excitement attracted her most about the scene.   _ Yep.  Adorable,  _ she thought.   


Belatedly realizing he attempted a display of the wonders, she made a show of looking around the clearing.  After all, though she’d seen over a dozen nearly the same, the kelp forests and their sunshafts were always gorgeous. Seeing them with Dil recalled some of the first time wonder for her.   


“They’re beautiful, huh?”  She asked him, grin never fading.  She looked over at him and reached out for his overly-ursine muzzle.  The smile on her face practically beamed, perhaps the happiest he’d ever seen her.

He gape-grinned back at her, and rubbed up against her, blowing tiny bubbles against her neck from his nose. He wound his way around her, spinning her a bit.  Immediately after, he zoomed back around the clearing and into the kelp, disappearing among the fronds. 

The lack of visibility beyond had her circling around the clearing.  After pulling her knees in and turning, she found a break in the same direction, and kick-glided back into the kelp.  Streamlining, she moved just at the ankles where necessary, weaving between the kelp in the direction she guessed he’d gone.  “Diiii-iiiiil?!”  She singsonged.

Visible as a shape in the fronds, he appeared like a shadow flickering here and there before disappearing again. When she’d been looking a few minutes, he burst out suddenly from her left, jaws wide to grab her arm and spin her around. 

At the last moment she drew her knees in against her chest and spun around him instead, running a gloved hand along his belly as he passed.  She laughed.  “Missed me!”  She glided through another kelp opening away from him.

He turned almost as quickly as a real pinniped and followed after her, diving below her and coming up in front, blocking her path. 

“Look who’s a show off now?”  She giggled, gliding the rest of the way forward and still horizontal from her neutral buoyancy, limited by it.  She slipped her arms around him as they met.  “Gotcha!”

He made a show of wriggling in her grasp, then went limp against her, defeated. 

Laughing again, she bumped her plastic mask-like comm device against him and kissed it.  “Mwah!”  She released him and tickled under his chin with just three fingers.  “I gotta watch the kelp, y’know, and you’re my dive partner right now, so you gotta make sure I’m safe.  I can’t just flit in and out of the kelp like you…”  She said the last part with a wistful voice, wishing she could otter up and play with him.

He pulled back and gave her such a clearly affronted look it came across even through his current form. He slipped out of her grasp and made a show of slowly leading her to the next clearing, through only the widest of paths. 

“Hey, you’re the one who almost ended up on the end of a harpoon like the world’s most excited shish kebab.”  She trailed after him, rolling her eyes as she followed down the path of exaggerated safety.  “We can still play.”  She kicked just one fin enough she glided under him, gripping a flipper near the end and slingshotting herself ahead.  Once in front of him, she kissed his snout with the mask between them again.  “Just basic safety I’m not sure you’re aware of, y’know?”

He blew bubbles in her face and pushed her along with his nose, into the clearing. He shot up again for a breath, porpoising once before diving back for the meadow.  Once there, he mouthed at her fins and kept just out of her grasp. 

“You’re getting way too much joy from out-swimming me now!”  She laughed at his antics, but then held a hand out in a stop gesture.  “Need to refresh my air supply.”  She warned him, fidgeting with the mask until a blue gel-like pearl dispensed from the device and she caught it in her mouth.  “Only got two more left.  Enough for an hour and a half, counting the one I just took.  We can’t lose track of time, okay?”

He bobbed his head up and down to show he heard her, and raised his lips as much as they would go, giving her a human-like smile. It was an odd gesture on a pinniped, and it made him look a bit ridiculous.

Rena loved it, giggling anew before she tickled his sides.  The gesture kicked off a new round of play-chase and circles until a school of small silver fish darted through and around their little meadow.  They gave Dil a wide berth but ran straight around Rena, followed by a much larger silver fish, torpedo shaped, with a huge jaw and teeth far too big for its mouth.  Longer than Rena was tall, it headed directly for her, chasing after the school with the single minded determination of a predator.    
  
Fortunately, Rena recognized the sort of movement from the school of fish before she actually saw what chased them.  As the fish flurried around her side, she kicked forward out of their path at a 90 degree angle.  Regardless, her eyes widened as she spotted the barracuda and pulled her knees up, getting her legs well away from its direct path.    


“Barracuda!”  She shouted warning, just in case her movements distracted it from the original targets.

Dil barked his surprise and raced to her side, putting himself between her and the big fish, who remained focused on the school, chasing them back into the kelp. Dil watched the spot he last saw the barracuda for a handful of heartbeats before circling tightly around Renawyn, nosing her in various places with worry. He got his muzzle between her legs and lifted up, herding her toward the surface.    
  
“Dil, wait, I can’t go directly up.  It’s okay.”  She tried maneuvering around him before he pushed her through the emergency exit.  Having an impossible time of it, she pushed down on his head instead with stuttered pressure, as though he were an underwater mount needing guidance.  “Out, then up.  Out, then up, Dil.  It’s just after the fish, y’know?”

For all of his prodding, he'd only pushed her up a few body lengths when he stopped and swam around her for a face to face look.  Clearly still worried, he put his nose to her chest, closing his eyes.    
  
“It’s okay,” she soothed, petting him along the head and shoulder, loosely hugging him.  “They can be territorial, y’know?  But he just wanted the fish,”  she murmured.  “I’m surprised he’s the first we’ve seen.  They like following divers around.”  She continued comforting him with soothing tones, explaining and talking him calmer, the way she would for an inexperienced diver after their first scary encounter.

“Do you want to go back up?”  She finally asked when he relaxed under the petting.

He shook his head and nosed her some more, reassuring himself she was ok. Then his whiskers twitched, and he turned, finding the barracuda floating not four feet from them. He bared his teeth at it, pushing in front of Renawyn without pressing her back. The barracuda just stared back at them, pectoral fins waving gently to keep it in place. 

Rena patted his shoulder in a comforting way, peering around him for a cautious look.  “He’s a big one.”  Admiration, rather than fright filled her tone, a bit exaggerated for Dil’s benefit.  “They like watching divers y’know?  He’s just keeping an eye on us...maybe hoping for some scraps from you.”  She pushed away from Dil, finning around in the clearing.  “Look.  Betcha he’s used to this game, big guy like that.  You gotta trust me and back up first though.”

Dil looked back at her and tilted his head, but he followed her, giving the big fish some space. The barracuda just sat, waiting. Dil wavered a bit in the water, looking back and forth between them, but when the fish didn't do anything else he made a quick trip for the surface and another breath.  Head turned down on the way there and back, he kept an eye on the pair at all times. 

After he returned, a single fish peeked out from between the fronds, not one of the anchovies but a small sea bass.    
  
Rena giggled at the waiting barracuda.  “Yep, he knows what’s coming.”  Rena spied the bass and weaved out of the clearing, using the kelp fronds to twist herself around and through, spooking the little fish out into the clearing from behind it.    


The sea bass darted out into the open space in a panic, caught between the sea lion above and the barracuda in front. Dil lunged for it, a false charge similar to what he would give as a bear. The sea bass veered away from him, right into the jaws of the barracuda.  The toothy predator snapped it up and shook it a few times before disappearing back into the kelp with its prize. 

“And now we’re allies.  Or useful tools, at least.”  Rena giggled.  “Just like that.  Honestly, it's pinnipeds like you we need to be extra cautious of.  And naga, of course, sea serpents, and murlocs, but really none of those have ever been spotted within miles of where we are now.  We’d have a proper guard otherwise.  Not that we’re defenseless.”   


She set about adjusting her height in the water, vertically sinking back to her original depth before Dil’s freak out.  Once there, she fiddled with the buoyancy until she floated horizontal again.   


“He’ll be back soon enough, wanna scare more food his way?”  She asked as though he’d been responding verbally all along.  “Just gotta be extra careful not to end up in the way, y’know?”

He swam loops around her and then answered with a yawn, displaying a sharp set of shark teeth.  With a whine he rolled on his back in front of her, showing his belly.  Twisting his head, he looked back at her expectantly. 

Rena laughed at him and rubbed his belly.  “You want me to scare some fish in here instead?  Is that what you’re saying?”  She joked.  Then, after another thorough belly rub, she conceded.  “Okay, we can go back.  I’m hungry anyway.  Always tomorrow.”   


She paused, hand still on his underside, thinking a few moments as he nodded at her, the gesture overdone and silly on a sea lion.  After checking a device on her wrist, she oriented back in the direction of the ship.  “Come on then!”  She used his shoulder as a push-off support and glided through the nearby kelp in the correct direction.

On the way, they spotted the barracuda a couple more times as a flash of silver among the kelp fronds, but it stayed back, leaving the return swim relatively uneventful. Dil popped back up to the surface a handful of times on the journey back, pushing his muzzle through the mat for a breath before finding Rena again.  He stuck close by otherwise. 

Once they left behind the kelp forest, he zoomed around her, showing off his agility with barrel rolls, loops and mock charges at her.   _ Adorable, way too adorable,  _ Rena thought for probably the hundredth time, grinning all the while.  Nonetheless, despite how impatient it made Dil, Rena tightly controlled her ascent.   


He only tried helping her once, snaking his head through her legs and pushing up, stopping immediately when she warned him against it.  “Can’t just zoom up like that.”   


Eeling his way through her legs after, he shot upwards, taking a breath at the surface before darting back down and blowing bubble rings toward her.  Then he generally tap danced as much as a pinniped can. 

“You are impossible!”  She giggled at him, losing it entirely.   “I can’t watch you right now, you’re gonna ruin my breathing!”  She closed her eyes as she struggled for control of her breath. Giggles still bubbled out despite her best efforts.  Once under control again, she focused on her ascent, shaking her head.    


When they broke the surface together, however, she grabbed hold of him with another giggle and pointed at the ship.  “To the ship!”  She mock-ordered.

He looked at her impishly before slipping out of her grasp. Grabbing the shoulder strap of her vest with his teeth, he pulled her toward the ship instead.   


Out of purely lazy payback for his showing off, she submitted to being dragged through the water.  Though awkward at first, he got the hang of it, finding the task not too bad.  However, if this became a regular occurrence, he thought she should have some sort of pull rope.  This close, she limited the movement of his front flippers. 

Once in arm’s reach of the ladder, he let her go and waited while she climbed up on her own and flopped over backward on the deck with a giggle.  Then, getting as close as he could, he braced himself and shifted back to his true form.  The suddenly cold water almost stung, and before he even finished the short climb aboard goosebumps covered his skin. 

Thankfully, his pants survived the shifting--sometimes they didn't with new or disused forms.  However, soaked through, they clung to his legs in an unpleasant way. He rubbed his arms with his hands and when he caught Rena’s gaze, jerked his head toward the cabins, not quite trusting his teeth wouldn’t chatter if he spoke. 

“Ach!  Yer back, ye tell that long-eared druid o’ yers I oughta shove the harpoon in ‘im anyway!”  McGullin looked down at Dil with a scowl as she walked past, a mug in hand and headed for the dining area.  Everyone else went about their ordinary jobs or leisure time.   


Dil blinked at the dwarf, not understanding the words but getting the gist of her sentiment.   


Rena didn't bother translating either.  “Go on, go get warm,” she said in Darnassian, nodding her head toward their shared room.  Sitting up at the same time, she removed her flippers, followed by her vest, com-mask, and belt as Dil nodded back.  She only shook her head with a smile as he left a trail of puddles in his wake.

The resistance built into Rena’s wetsuit protected her from the cold water.  However, without her flippers on, the chill claimed her feet with additional sympathy for the druid.  When she finished putting away the extra gear, she wrung out her hair over the ship’s edge and padded back to her room after Dil, still in her wet suit and goggles.

By the time she got back to her room Dil had already stripped out of his shorts and stolen the fluffiest, thickest blanket, now wrapped around his shoulders. His shorts, carefully draped over some half-dismantled project of Renawyn’s, hung on top of the towel he used to dry himself off. He grinned at her when she entered the room. 

She beamed a bright smile back at him, so happy her eyes closed briefly with it.  It was the same, happiest of smiles she gave him underwater, thoroughly warmed by his new enthusiasm for something she loved.  She took a few steps forward as though she might fling her arms around him, but thought better of it. Though quick-drying, her wet suit would probably get water on the blanket.  Instead, she grabbed a pin to hold her wet bundle of hair up in a messy bun and turned her back as she peeled off her wetsuit.  Her mind circled around a dozen ways to express how happy and relieved his lively excitement made her in the kelp forest, but none made it past her lips.

When she turned back around, he waited for her with a dry towel in his hands.  The blanket still draped across his shoulders fell open, revealing his complete lack of clothing.  With the both of them naked, Rena blushed at her resulting thoughts, no less shy for all their dancing around and teasing. 

"I should have gone down with you days ago. I didn't realize--I've never seen..." He trailed off, mind going off in many directions at once and ending up unable to choose. 

She accepted the towel with a giggle while he had the same trouble finding words for their shared experience.  Once dried, she unpinned her hair and toweled it off as well.  However, rather than seek the blanket, she rummaged in one of her many toolboxes for her bottle of conditioner.  Not the first time he’d seen her apply the mixture to her hair since the voyage started.  Once she had it lathered in, room full of the honey-cake scent, she toweled at her hair again, then folded it over his drip-drying shorts.  Without the cold resistance from the wetsuit, she shivered and pulled for the blanket.   
  
Finally finding words of her own, she grinned happily.  “I’m so glad you did.  Even if you’re already a better swimmer than I am.”

"I cheat." He laughed, both at her words and her vying for the blanket, which he happily shared with her.  Raising one arm, he draped it and the blanket across her shoulders, herding her to the only comfortable seat in the room. "In this form, I'm sure it would be you swimming rings around me." 

She snuggled in as they relaxed on the bed, sitting across his lap rather than beside him.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so happy.”  She recalled how excited and proud and incredibly adorkable he looked in the first kelp clearing and smiled up at him, kissing his chin.

Pleased by the extra contact, he wrapped the blanket tighter around the both of them, trapping their body heat together. He squeezed her tightly and kissed her forehead.  Then, with a happy hum, he nuzzled into her neck.  "I could think of a few times....but that was so unexpected. Forests underwater! I must admit I had been mourning my trees.."

She wrapped her arms around him as best she could and hugged him tight.  “I worried about you, y’know?  I’m just so happy you tried swimming today.”  She nuzzled him back, exposing a bit more of her neck to him.

He took the offer and laid kisses down her throat, tasting the salt from the sea off her skin. “I’m happy I didn’t get harpooned.” he laughed between kisses. “and that you joined me for a while.” 

A pleased sigh followed his kisses and she melted against him.  “Yeah, you’re gonna need some more safety debriefing.  Pinnipeds can be a bigger swim risk than sharks, y’know?  You’d-- _ mmm… _ make a pretty good guard for the arc team though.”  She turned her head so one of his kisses landed on her cheek, and then her lips.

"Hmmm...I'm sure you can instruct me on that later..." He said, kissing her chastely on the lips before trailing back down her throat with his tongue. "I can't stay down as long as you...the times I would have to surface to breathe you would be vulnerable." 

“We do…”  Her breath hitched and a pleased sigh followed as she tilted her head away again.  “Have...have our own system, y’know.  Not...completely defenseless.”

His hands tightened around her as he thought of her being defenseless, his head bowed into her neck, breathing in the honeyed scent of her. As much as he'd want to keep her safe in the lee of his arms, he didn't think he could. She'd never tolerate it. 

"I want you, Renawyn." He said instead. "I want you to be happy, to be safe, to be...satisfied." He cupped one of her breasts, catching the nipple between his first and second fingers, scissoring them gently to roll the sensitive nub. 

_ Satisfy me… _  almost escaped her lips as a plea.  Instead, a small, involuntary whimper followed his teasing touch.  She breathed in more deeply and found he smelled like the ocean now.  By the time he tugged at her nipple, her fingers found their way into his hair as if she held him against her neck, though she applied no force.   


"I want to make you happy,” he continued, “I never want you to regret your attentions to the bear who followed you home because he thought you the most captivating thing he'd ever seen."    
  
_ Regret? _  That day played in her memory now.   _ I was...captivating?   _ In an attempt to see his face, she tried turning toward him more and craned her neck. “I’ll never regret that.”    


His eyes met hers as she turned to look at him, lust in his gaze, mixed with anxiousness and an earnest desire to see her pleased. His hand dropped from her breast to trail down her stomach, resting just above her hips. 

With her other hand, she reached up and caressed his cheek.  “Okay?  Never.”  She kissed his ear, the easiest part of him in reach.  On impulse, before he could pull away, she licked along the top of his ear where she kissed, tasting him, enjoying his responsive shudder.  Salt.  She pressed her lips together on the same spot, just holding it there. One hand dropped from his cheek, to his neck, the other still buried in his hair.

His throat worked, though no sound escaped, and every muscle tensed against her. He swallowed, nodding belatedly at her assurances

“Okay.” He echoed back. “I….” A loud rumble, from one or both of their stomachs, cut him off. He smirked and looked at her, the mood broken. “Lunch?" He gave her a lopsided grin.

She released his ear when it twitched.  “Before I eat your ear?”  She giggled, leaning back in time to catch him already smiling.  “Yeah.  Lunch.”  She sat up straighter in his lap before sliding off and out from under the blanket.  “Least you have some other clothes now,” she said as she dug dry clothing for both of them out of the chest at the foot of the bed.  Largely unaware, the act of grabbing clothes had her bent over naked within arm’s reach.

"True." His gaze followed her form and he resisted catching her and pushing her down, licking until she screamed.  Instead, he trailed a single hand down the small of her back, over the curve of her backside, and down her upper thighs, only to caress back up and brush his knuckles against her labia. 

She stilled with the turn of that caress, leaving his fingers wet from her eager state.  Her breath caught with a white-knuckled grip on the clothes she’d gathered, her eyes fluttering closed.  Forcing herself steady, she transferred that grip to the edges of the chest instead, still bent over with her hips seeking more.  “Are you sure lunch is what you really want right now?”  She laughed, breathy and wanting.   


"I can wait." He murmured, not clarifying  _ which  _ he meant and slipped one finger between her lower lips, teasing her entrance. "Unless you don't think you can?" That same finger slid inside her now. "I don't think it will take too long to find something to eat."

Her hips rocked back on his finger, followed by a sharp moan.  She clutched the side of the chest harder and whimpered his name.  He asked something….   _ Why does he make it so difficult to think? _  Something about lunch….

He brushed his thumb over her clit before pulling his hand back and sucking her juices from his fingers.  A moment more and he slid off the bed onto his knees behind her, catching her hips and replacing his fingers with his tongue. 

Her knees almost buckled from the pleasure of it.  She panted a few times in a vain attempt at catching her breath.  “I--” she broke off with a gasp as he continued licking, failing at articulating much of anything.

With one hand hugging the front of her thighs, he held her steady, the other hand giving her previously ignored breast the same treatment as the first, rolling her nipple between his fingers. His tongue lapped at her wetness and swirled around her clit before pressing inside her. 

Rena's panting grew more vocal, interspersed with small, strangled moans as she struggled with keeping quiet.  “Dil…” she mumbled something between moans, ending with, “Inside me... _ nnnhh _ ...please?”

At her request he groaned into her, tongue as deep as it would go already. His cock, hard from having her scent in his nose, twitched, and a drop of precum beaded at its tip. He gave her one last lick, suckling at her clit and sat up on his knees, his hands going back to her hips. He pulled her to him, his cock poking against her thigh before sliding against her sex, slickened head slipping between her lips and past her entrance to hit her clit. 

Her breath caught with anticipation, the electric cord thrumming full force through her body.  She remembered to breathe with a shuddering gasp.   
  
So lost in the pleasure of his touch, she startled when a heavy fist banged on their door.  “Ren, don’t you go rewardin’ that fool elf for his stupidity today!  Come eat yer lunch girl, we got data ta comb!”

Dil jumped as well, but actually growled at the intrusion, sending a shiver dancing through Rena at the possessive sound of it.  He pulled her closer and kept her there, his breath tickling the back of her neck in short huffs. 

“Did he…”  The dwarf started up in common, from the sounds of it, she turned from the door.  “I think he jus’ growled at me in there!”   
  
“Come away from the door Merna, let’em be fer now.”  The male dwarf responded from farther away.

A few more ragged breaths, a few more pounding heartbeats, and he sighed, resting his forehead on her shoulder. "Tonight." He promised. 

Rena caught her breath with him, though her body still ached for the promise in his tight hold.  She laughed a little at the affront in McGullin’s voice, the sound breathy and not entirely amused.  “Tonight,”  she agreed, sagging against him and only just now realizing she still gripped clothing pin her hands.  “Pants now?”  She laughed again and flipped his pair over her left shoulder at him.   
  
With a heavy sigh, he loosened his grip, still supporting her, but not enough to hinder her movements.  Ears drooping, he took the pants in hand and let her up, sitting back on his haunches.  "If I have to." He got to his feet and stepped into his pants, pretty good these days at hiding his erection.    
  
Rena turned to watch him a few moments.  “I’m sorry.”  Her brows knitted together before she pulled her own clothes on.  “We won’t be rushed tonight though.”  She ran a brush through her still-damp hair and braided the usual section, tying it off with the little engineering charms.

His stomach chose that moment to reassert itself, reminding him he hadn't eaten yet today and he was suddenly starving. When she offered him the brush he waved it off, not willing to take the time to brush out his mane of hair. Combined with the simple cotton breeches, it only added to his man of the wilds appearance, but at least he was clean and still smelled of the sea. 

He followed her out the door for a late lunch.  Once settled with their food, he struggled not to make faces at the dwarf who tried to kill him and more importantly, interrupted his near-claiming of Renawyn. 

McGullin, for her part, largely ignored the druid.  Having already eaten lunch, she and her cousin spent the time in one corner of the dining area playing a board game and having a heated debate in dwarvish.  Rena only understood half of it, enough to know there was no cause for worry and it was nothing to do with work.

She did, however, catch the captain looking up at them from his book a time or two before he headed back up on deck.  They finished their lunch in relative silence.  Rena got up first and kissed Dil’s cheek.  “I gotta go sort the data.  If you go back under, don’t talk to any other pinnipeds you don’t know and if you see naga, stay hidden ‘til they go away.”

The dwarves followed her out of sight and down the stairs, still in their debate.


	9. After Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rena returns to her room on the ship after work and finds Dil passed out on every last blanket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter. Short notes. It gets explicit. Contains oral/69.
> 
> Minor side note: This is the very scene after which we decided they would be an Ot3 that included Captain Tully (with full permission of his original creator). This point and beyond I pretty much made him my own character with a dash of inspiration from the original. Still, that original credit and the name belong with D. Reynolds.
> 
> \----------------------

When Rena ascended the stairs again later that night, she wore a goofy smile on her face, with an eye on her photograph of Dil in his quasi-bear water form.  She looked up when her eye caught movement though, the rustle of a turning page.

 “Oh...hey Cap’n.”  She gave Tully a short wave when she spotted him back at his table, reading again.   
  
“Rena.”  He greeted her by name with a warmth that gave her pause.  Long enough her mind went to the vision and she wondered and frowned over a new thought.   _ If I’m with Dil in this timeline...who makes Tully happy? _  She blushed immediately, feeling horrible for worrying and yet a little divided on exactly who she was being disloyal to.  Looking away and continuing to her room, she promptly reminded herself how different other things were between the two realities.   
  
“Night, Cap’n.”  She waved over her shoulder, wishing he at least had that port wench on Darkmoon Island still.    


When she opened her door, she found Dil passed out completely nude and above the covers, which made her giggle.   _ Poor guy. _  She set down the photograph and closed the door.   _ Should I wake him?   _ She asked herself, removing her own clothing and laying it out over the chest at the foot of the bed.  The answer turned out an easy one when she realized he’d laid himself out over every last blanket.

“Not taking any chances, huh?”  She climbed on the bed next to him, already a little chilly.  “Diii-iiiil…”  she said his name in a soft, sing-song.  When he didn't respond, she traced a finger along his chest, down over his hips.  “I’m cold and you’re on all the blankets.”  More amused than complaining, she kept her voice soft, adding a few extra syllables and dragging others out.

He stirred a bit, his brows furrowing in his sleep, but he’d spent most of the afternoon learning the intricacies of underwater movement, along with a few dismal attempts at changing his form from pinniped to cetacean. He’d only left the water just after dark, his instincts wanting him back on land, away from any large, night time predators. 

However, on board once more, he'd taken the time to clean the salt from his skin at the crew showers.  He even brushed out his hair, which currently fanned out on the pillows, slowly curling as it dried. 

Rena ran her fingers through it.  His ear only twitched when she said his name more firmly.  Sprawled out over most of the bed, he left her little room.  Decided on a direct course of action, she straddled his waist and leaned forward on him, chin resting on her arms, looking up and waiting again.

When she shifted her weight a little, he rolled his hips to meet hers before he even opened his eyes, blinking at her sleepily with the unfocused look of someone not really awake. His eyelids slid shut and he wrapped an arm around her and curled on his side, taking her with him.  With happy sounding mumbles, he hugged her to his chest.   


Rena giggled at the adorable reaction.  However, still a little chilly and now with his cock twitching against her hip, she wiggled out of his grasp, ignoring his small whimper, and sat up on one elbow, looking him over while he slept.  Relaxed in sleep, her lean druid displayed only minimal muscle definition.  The slight pout on his lips only made them look fuller.  Rena let her gaze trail down from his face to his cock, still mostly soft.  Only a few seconds later and she twisted around on her knees, pushing up on all fours near his hips.  With another glance over her shoulder at his face, she nibbled at her bottom lip and then took him in hand, stroking down his length.

A rumbled moan from the druid and his cock twitched in her hand.  Still semi-soft, enough the velvety skin gave under her touch.  Her focused attention rapidly changed that, Dil growing harder in immediate response.  Looking back for his reaction, she caught his dopey smile as his eyes slid open and closed again.   


In the next moment, she laid on her side facing him, but upside down, replacing her finger with her tongue.  One arm pinned now, she used the other hand to hold him up for her mouth, finally tasting him.  She found the flavor warm and mild, with a hint of salt, but also a little musky and utterly male.  Not unpleasant.

He'd spent the better part of the day in the ocean, and still smelled faintly briny, especially around the wiry fur surrounding his base. Licking down again with the flat of her tongue, she circled the tip when she reached it again, teasing him harder.  Faster than she expected, her attentions thickened the cock in her hand and hardened it against her tongue. 

"Rena....?" He murmured, hand reaching out and finding her leg where he expected to find a...he wasn't sure, because he was suddenly hyper aware of her tongue on his shaft, sliding across his glands and over his frenulum.  It brought him to full consciousness. 

Rena only hummed against him at the shaky way he said her name, exploring a bit longer with her tongue. When she pulled away, she looked down at him with a somewhat shy smile, hand still around his cock.  “Did you wanna keep sleeping?”  Her smile shifted into something more like a smirk now.

Mid-moan over the pleasant buzz from her humming, it turned into a chuckle at her question. He propped one leg up, foot at his opposite knee, and tilted his head and shoulders to look at her properly, not in the least body shy around her.  His hips pressed forward for the friction of her loosely circled fingers, finding her grip tighter for him. 

"Bit late for that..." he murmured, his own fingers tracing paths along the outside of her thigh. 

“Well, since you fell asleep on every last blanket in here, I figured you wanted a wake up call.  Was I wrong?”  She didn't wait for his answer and instead leaned back into licking him again, this time rubbing at the base of his shaft while she took the tip between her lips. With her tongue, she explored the ridged bump of the head.

"I..." Whatever he was going to say was lost in a groan as she took the head in her mouth and traced the corona. His hips bucked forward, begging for more of her mouth. He squeezed her thigh before nudging it open.  Spreading her legs, he dipped his head between them and lapped at her wetness.  The need for something-- _ anything _ \--to focus on besides the wet heat of her mouth on his skin drove him with a bit of frenzied desperation. 

Rena only sucked harder and farther with a muffled and high-pitched “ _ Mmnnph _ !”  In fact, each lick he gave her now rewarded him with more intense sucking and needy moans around his cock, followed by her taking him in a bit deeper.  When she reached the limits of what fit in her mouth, she stroked the rest of his shaft, rather than ignore it.

He alternated between licking and sucking her clit, one forefinger circling the edge of her entrance, letting her anticipate his intentions. His movements stuttered as it took far more effort for him to keep his attention on his own actions rather than hers. His finger slid into her easily, quickly joined by a second. 

She paused with a whimpered moan of pleasure around him before renewing her bobbing up and down with far more hunger in her muffled cries. Every whimpered moan edged into an inceasingly desperate pitch.

"Rena...!" He gasped as she picked up her pace, hips pulling away from her only to snap back forward, his whole body tensing. "I'm..." He twitched in her mouth and came suddenly in hot spurts, hands clenching her thighs, fingertips making divots in her flesh. 

With a surprised “ _ Mmph _ !” Rena just barely moved  _ with _ him, narrowly avoiding more of his cock than she could handle.  On reflex, she swallowed the heated result of his orgasm rather than let it explode all over her.  Some of it dribbled down her chin anyway, but she only followed Dil’s hips again when he thought to pull back.   


With another groan of pleasure, he realized she was already swallowing him down with whimpered cries of her own.  Even though he'd stuttered to a halt, he'd left her lost in a half-fucked state of hunger.   


His breath escaped in short bursts down her leg.  The pain of his fingers digging in only made her ache harder for attention while she panted through her nose.  She hummed with a needy edge, drinking the last of him in.

In a moment that felt like forever, at least to him, it ended.  He blinked and turned his attention back on her with a will, determined to give her the same amount of pleasure in return. If his fingers shook as he thrusted them into her, well, that was only to be expected. 

Rena barely noticed, far more taken by the aggressive turn in his focus.  With a sharp, vocalized gasp almost certainly audible beyond the room, she released his cock.  Her unpinned hand found his thigh, pressing a caress around until  she clutched at his hip while she curled around him.

Resting her head on his legs, she panted for air.  “Nnngh...take me…”  she pled, aching for more than his fingers and far too lost in pleasure to think her request through.

He whined like a dog, knowing while he was still hard now, it wouldn’t last long enough. Sucking on her clit, he added a third finger and curled them around.

The sound of his frustrated whine made her regret the request, but only in the time before he stroked her inner walls, spreading his fingers and finding just the right spot.  Her hips chased the perfect angle and found it with a cry so loud, she brought her mouth down on his outer thigh, muffling the rest of her pleasure into his skin.   


When he spread his fingers again, stretching her wider still, she bit down on his thigh with a whimper at the mixture of pain in the pleasure.  “Sorry…” she panted, followed by, “No, don’t stop,” when he faltered.  “Please….”

Using his tongue for other things at the moment, he merely nodded as he pistoned his fingers in and out of her.  Each time he pulled them away, he spread them.  All the while, his tongue lapped from the front of her to his fingers over and over again in quick, flat strokes. 

Not long after, her movements grew more erratic, hips jerking in his grasp.  “Dil….”

He hummed in reply against her, and kept up his pace, perhaps pressing a bit harder and pushing into her a bit farther in response. His free hand ran down her body to her breasts and found her nipple, pinching it almost roughly. 

“Dil!”  She shuddered, the extra sensation pushing her that last little bit.  She bit down on crying out again and mewled with her orgasm, hips rocking on his hand.

He groaned as she spasmed around his fingers, and kept up his pace until she stopped her rhythmic squeezing. With one last comprehensive lick, he lapped up her wetness, before pulling his fingers out.  Then, rolling away from her on his back, he licked them clean as well.

Rena more flopped away on her back than simply rolling, panting for air.  Her head still near his hips, she propped herself up on her elbows while she looked him over; sweaty, spent, but still gorgeous.  Her gaze stopped at his face with a somewhat impish smile.  Nibbling at her bottom lip, she poked his arm with a toe.

“ _ Nngh _ .” He grunted in response to the poke before raising his head to look at her.  “Again?” He raised a brow at her and let his head fall back onto the pillow. “Give me a moment.”    
  
“ _ Again _ ?”  She echoed, sitting up, then giggling.  “No.”  She climbed over him, straddling and laying her head on his chest.  “Not yet.”

“Good” he said, eyes sliding closed even as he smiled over her using him as a jungle gym. His hand found her hair, patting softly before trailing off down her back. “Cause I don’t think I could right now.” 

“Mmm.  That feels nice though.”  She closed her eyes and pet his shoulder in return, already sounding sleepy.

“This I can do.” He lifted his head enough to kiss the top of hers. “Though maybe we should get under the blanket before we fall asleep again.” 

“That requires moving,” she complained.

He chuckled at her, and with a bit of cooperation, managed to get them both under the blanket with minimal movement from either of them. He curled around her, pulling her close, and nuzzling into her neck.   


Rena gave him a happy hum and shortly after he answered with a content sigh. They both drifted into pleasant sleep.


	10. The Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ehrendil has a vivid dream, one that shakes things up with Captain Tulosa in the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naughty stuff in this chapter (explicit). Visit our tumblr for more detailed notes: http://rendilosa.tumblr.com/post/181052584934/wandercraft-10-the-dream

Dil floated into consciousness about as gently as he left it the previous night. Still heavy with sleep, he cuddled into the soft pillows, Renawyn a warm weight beside him. The deep and regular rhythm of her breathing indicated sleep. He rolled toward her under the covers. Hand running up her side, around her waist, he pulled her close and breathed in the honeyed scent of her hair. 

Both naked, his morning hardness pressed into the cleft of her ass, trapped between them. Her smooth skin against his, he savored the pleasant sensations as his fingers traveled up, cupping one of her breasts. He wondered what time it was and how much he could get away with before she had to get up. 

Already, she responded with a sleep-leaden, but content mumble and snuggled in further, hips wiggling against him. Still mostly asleep, she hummed in a drowsy way. She murmured something and wiggled her hips again, smiling. Though hardly coherent, her tone sounded a bit amused... _and_ _taunting_.

Emboldened by her response, he continued, even going so far as to press his hips, and what's caught between them, against her. His hand squeezed her breast gently, once again finding them a perfect handful. The squeezing caress trailed back down her stomach and ended with a brush against the trimmed fur between her legs. 

“Mmm...Dil…Mornin’ ta you too…” A sleepy giggle followed her words. She stretched in his grasp, making sure she wiggled her hips on purpose this time. Catching his hand, she exposed her neck to him.

"Mornin..." he purred, nibbling on the offered space. The word trailed off in a groan as her hips pressed back against him. "Did I wake you?" Though unapologetic, he twisted his hand in hers, weaving their fingers together. 

“Nope.” She giggled. “Still sleeping, can’t you tell?” Her hips wiggled again, enticing him.

"Hmm...." He growled in her ear. "Must be dreaming then…." He pulled back enough to free his erection from between them, and angled it so he prodded her thighs where they joined. 

Anticipation hitched in her breath and she bit at the inside of her lower lip. A moment later her legs parted just enough he could push between them. She dragged both their hands lower.

His own anticipation spiked, pressed up against her so intimately. "Please tell me we have time," he whispered into her ear, even as his fingers navigated her folds, searching for her clit. 

“What time... _ mmmm _ ...is it…?” She moved her hips back until his cock slid along to his fingertips on the other side. Her own movement left her gasping.

He shrugged behind her as she peeked over her shoulder. Then, after she slid forward and back again, he grasped himself and pressed his cock up against her more firmly.  As he pulled back for the next thrust, his cockhead spread her inner labia and slid across her entrance. Then he pushed forward until his glans dragged against her clit, pleasurable for both of them. "Does it matter?"

“ _ Nngh _ …” She stretched again in response, back arching away from him. “‘Nother dive early.” She laid open-mouthed kisses along his arm before reaching behind her and grabbing his hip.

"How early?" He said in between kisses on her shoulder and wherever else in reach. His cock slid against her, still teasing them both. 

Her breathing picked up and she tilted her head back against him with a needy whimper. “Don’t...care…I want you.”

" _ Mmm _ ...." He hummed as his next thrust found her properly wet against him. As he repositioned, he traced a parting caress over her thigh, no longer reaching around her.  Instead, he grasped the base of his cock and held it steady as he pulled back, then pressed the head against her entrance. "This what you want...?" He asked, both teasing and confirming her desire. 

Anticipation built until she trembled just slightly. “Yes.” Her fingers kneaded at his hip, digging in. “Please…take me….”   
  
In a matter of timing almost predictable, someone knocked at her door. “Early start, lass!” McGullin called out.

Dil growled under his breath, and debated burying himself in her anyway. Unconsciously, he pushed a half inch into her anyway, before the flare of his head found resistance. 

She gasped and stared accusation over her shoulder. _So_ _close_ ….

"Don't go," he whispered into her hair, though he sighed after, guessing her reply. 

Her hips moved back responsively, pushing him just a bit further in. A small whimper chased her movement. “I...need a moment,” she called back, almost panting.

He groaned over it all as his corona popped in and slid home, stretching her open. Warm, slick, and tight, she already forced his breath out in ragged gasps.   _ Too much….  _ He grabbed her hips and buried himself in her with one quick motion, hooking one leg around hers to keep them joined. 

Rena cried out loud enough the entire ship likely heard the moment he claimed her. Pleasure rather than pain.

He moaned at the feeling of her stretched around him, eyes rolled into the back of his head even as he kept her pinned with hand and leg. 

“ _ Yes!” _ She panted and then whimpered. “Mmmm.  _ Dil _ ...fuck me.”

With a growl near her ear, Dil bit her shoulder and rolled them both over.  By the end of it she laid on her stomach under him as he flexed his hips, shoving in as far as he could go. 

“You feel divine,” he murmured into her neck, setting his pace - slow and deep.  Each time he pulled back was shorter than the previous, and he stayed hilted in her longer. 

The bite only intensified her cries of pleasure. Rena’s hands slid up and clutched the pillow under her head, panting and pushing up on her elbows until her back arched. Tilting her head back, each time he drove in she cried out again, no longer caring if McGullin waited right outside for work. They could watch for all she cared right now. During each pause she squirmed a little, begging for more, her sex twitched around him in eager, tighter pulses.

Her spasms only spurred him on, and he thrusted faster as he focused on his pleasure of her. His free hand ran up her side and slid under her, grabbing one of her breasts. He propped himself up by the other arm, preventing his weight from crushing her into the bed. A few more thrusts and he pulled her back with him, lifting her up on her knees and spreading her legs wider for better access. 

Lips parted and still panting, she clutched the sheets now. Her hair swayed over one shoulder, breasts bouncing with each rough thrust. She squirmed each time he pulled her hips back and held. “Harder,” she whimpered. “Fuck me harder, Dil, please….”

Easy in this position, on his knees behind her. He grabbed her hips and pulled her back onto him with each thrust. His cock as hard as steel, as hard as it could possibly be. His balls tightened with the anticipation of coming inside her. 

The intense pleasure left her weak in the elbows and her hold against his thrust wobbled before they gave out. She clutched the pillows, ass in the air. “Dil... _ Ah _ !” Her hips bucked in his grasp and she swallowed before whimpering his name again. “I’m….” She shuddered in his grasp, so close now.

“Me…” he thrusted into her, more deeply than ever before, “too.” And then he came inside of her, his cock twitching with hot spurts.

Her orgasm synced up perfectly with his last thrust, Rena calling his name in a rising crescendo before release took them both. By the end of it she whimpered and rocked back on his cock, squeezing every last bit of his seed in pulsing contractions.

He collapsed on top of her, still joined, breathing heavily, utterly spent. 

His weight on her pushed her hips down with his as if she weren’t even there. Warm beneath him, she laid there panting. His. The whole ship knew it after that.   
  
The weight of someone else sitting on the bed near his hips registered and a hand rested on his shoulder. “See. I told you she mirrors what people give her.” The captain’s voice was soft and overly familiar.  _ Intimate _ . His hand trailed down Dil’s back.

Dil startled at the touch, the randomness of Tulosa suddenly being there jerking him out of sleep.  _ Alone _ . Tangled up in the sheets. 

The uncomfortable stickiness on his lower belly filtered in next. He blinked, still disoriented by the dream and Rena's absence. The desire to lay back and stay in the moment lingered. However, the desire to clean up the evidence before Renawyn saw the state of her bed overruled it. 

_ It’s been ages since that happened… _ he thought, rolling out of bed.  Hopefully he could slip out and find the showers empty. Locating some shorts first, he hopped into them as he headed for the door.  When he opened it, the captain stood just on the other side. 

Knock abandoned, Tulosa's hand dropped to his side.

_ What?  _ turned into  _ Is this why he was in my dream? _ turned into _ Please don’t let him look too closely or breathe too deeply... _ turned into  _ Why is he here? _ All in the span of about three seconds. His expressions betrayed most of those thoughts as he stood stupidly in front of the captain and stared at him. 

Tulosa’s own surprised expression quickly turned into an amused smirk. “Oh, good, I don’t have to wake you now.” Tulosa managed a casual air as he looked the other kaldorei over.    


The druid just continued staring at him.

Hot and sweaty from his daily workout, the captain still caught Dil’s scent over his own and flicked an ear at a few naughty scenarios.  _ You’re not invited to this party, captain.  _ “Shower’s broke and I need a part in here.” He nodded his head at the room behind Dil.   
  
Tulosa lifted an eyebrow at Dil's continued silence. It lasted long enough he wondered if he somehow broke the druid as well. This did not help the amusement in his smile.

Dil caught that amused bend of the captain's ear and colored from the tips of his own to his chest, noticeable even through his sun-darkened skin. His gaze flicked over Tulosa’s bare chest and his cheeks heated further as the thought of  _ He’s not half-bad, actually… _ crossed his mind. He told himself it was only from the recent juxtaposition of the captain in his dreams that he thought to look at all. 

“Um…Renawyn’s already gone,” he said the first thing on his mind, still rooted in place. “I don’t….” 

The obvious blushing earned him an amused huff of air from the captain, almost a laugh, but not mocking. “You’re hardly the first, Ehren, and you quite likely won’t be the last,” he commented on the blush instead, stepping forward with a ‘do you mind’ gesture at the room behind Dil.    


Dil gave way as the captain pressed forward, a half step back and to the side. He relaxed slightly with a bit of a half-smile at his own embarrassment.    


“It’s not like you’re in here dreaming about me,” Tulosa added, smirk back in full force and teasing in a way he hoped would ease the druid’s tension.

Dil’s face went slack, his eyes wide and carefully blank after a moment of shock. “N-no, of course not.” He managed a chuckle, forced and hardly believable. “The showers are broken?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to change the subject. His mind latched on the first thought again, which didn't help his situation any. “Guess I’m in for a swim then.” 

Tulosa watched the chain reaction of emotions, his own expression broadcasting sharply piqued interest and surprise, one eyebrow raising.  _ Reeeeeally now?  _ He'd paused completely while digging through Rena's tools to give Dil a measuring look, only his face turned fully toward the druid.  His gaze flicked to the bed. 

At least a dozen inappropriate images flitted through the captain’s mind as he looked Ehrendil over more thoroughly. Judging from the sounds that reached the common room while Tulosa was reading last night--no. Not considering this.  _ It has been way too long since you were last laid old sea dog, _ he admonished himself. 

Except Rena had also dreamt of him, before all this, before Ehrendil.  
  
The lengthening silence drew the captain out of his thoughts, grateful his pants fit in a concealing way. He turned his back all the same and rifled through the engineering toolbox again. The work-bench-like shelving curved around this side of her room was built in low enough Tulosa had to slouch uncomfortably over it. 

“Just my shower, again. If I can’t find that part...well, you’ll have company at the crew showers.” He paused again after that, the smirk back on his face and in his voice.

_ That, what was that? He doesn’t really...he must have heard….  _ Ehrendil swallowed and set his jaw, trying not to look too flustered, not too successfully. The dream, Tulosa’s part in it, the feeling of his hand trailing down Dil’s spine as he came….  It's all a confused muddle in his head, made even more confused by the captain’s last words.  _ He’s flirting? But I’m with...and I was pretty sure he wants…? _

Dil shifted his weight to his heels, then to one leg as he scrambled for a response. “That wouldn’t be so bad.” The words escaped before he could censor them. He should really just stop talking all together. He looked away, but his gaze fell on the rumpled bed with its messy sheets, not the best considering the conversation so far. 

Tulosa stopped rummaging again, ear flicking back in Dil’s direction before he looked over his shoulder with just a hint of surprise. He followed the druid’s gaze to the bed.  _ Must’ve been some dream…. _ The smirk never quite reclaimed his face and he returned to rummaging.    


“Despite what the both of you dream about…” He turned around with the part in hand and studied the nervous and slightly confused druid. “I doubt either of you are ready for a third.” He held up the part and raised both eyebrows as if to drive the point home. 

_ But when they are…. No. _ Cementing his decision, he tossed the part in the air, hefting as he caught it, then headed for the door.  _ Time to go. _

Dil watched the captain leave, jaws firmly clamped shut so his tongue couldn't betray him.  _ Both?  _ He didn't know if he was relieved when the captain left, but he slumped to his knees immediately after Tulosa closed the door. He ran his hands through his hair. 

_ Get yourself together,  _ he told himself, fluffing his hair in an expression of nervous energy. A shower. Yes, that would be good. That was what he was going to do before he was waylaid by Captain Tulosa of the well muscled chest and… _ no. Not going there, not thinking that. _

He got to his feet once more, tugged at the bedsheets in a half hearted attempt to conceal his mess, and headed for the showers.    


The small, tiled room’s mage lights flared to life as he stepped through the threshold. A half wall with a pair of sinks blocked the entrance, and around them the showers, blessedly empty. Dil hung his shorts on a hook away from the shower heads where they hopefully wouldn't get too wet, and fiddled with the knobs that set the water temperature.    


He was already in the water before he realized he’d forgotten his towel. 

He had maybe five minutes to himself, perhaps as much as ten before the sound of someone else on the other side of the wall reached him. The captain didn't leave him guessing who for long. He rounded the corner, long, midnight hair loose and not even bothering with a towel. “I just realized why Ren has her own room. Engineer, I am not.” He laughed, starting up the shower on Dil’s right, so far keeping his gaze to himself.

Dil had enough time to get the water where he wanted it and for the room to get a bit steamy, and was in the process of rubbing at the flaking mess on his stomach. His ears dropped slightly and he closed his eyes, resting his head against the still-cool tile and letting the water run down his back. “I was curious about that.”

Though not any more body shy than Ehrendil, Tulosa nonetheless ignored the druid next to him, even going so far as to turn away and close his eyes as he let the water thoroughly soak his hair first, head tilted back. He kept his mind carefully on the broken shower and part, letting it work at puzzling that out and not really responding to the druid’s comment.

A few minutes after the lack of response, Ehrendil decided he should probably continue his own shower, instead of just using up all the hot water. He got his hair clean without issue, using that as an excuse to keep his eyes shut so the suds wouldn't sting them. 

The captain wasn't looking at him, didn't seem to want to engage in more conversation, and that was just fine with Dil at the moment. He reached for the bar of soap in its little tiled recess in the wall, and fumbled it. When he squeezed for a better grip, the bar shot out of his hand, hit the floor, and skidded to a stop only after it bumped the side of Tulosa’s foot. 

In the midst of soaping up already, Tulosa looked down at it.  _ The soap...really?  _ He couldn't help but smirk as his carefully constructed puzzle of engineering parts and broken machinery shattered into the dirty world of that old joke. He found himself immediately wondering just what role he played in the dreams of these two.  Casually, he bent over to both retrieve the soap and conceal the responding twitch of his echoed interest.

Dil couldn't help but notice anyway, along with his attempt at hiding it. He took a step toward Tulosa, hand outstretched to take his wayward soap back. Standing at half-mast himself, he did nothing to hide it. “Sorry” he said, keeping his eyes firmly on the soap in the captain’s hand. 

“Yup.” Tulosa held the bar over his shoulder for the druid, turning slightly away as he stood upright. He sighed.  _ Now I  _ really _ wish my shower was working.   _ Regardless, he hoped the lack of nerves or embarrassment in his movements showed his consideration rather than making him appear shy.

Ehrendil took the soap back, feeling like he should be relieved the captain was being so considerate but somehow did not. He re-entered his own pleasantly warm stream of water, and managed to keep ahold of the soap long enough to create a good lather before setting it back in its cubby. Still, the captain’s earlier offhand comment continued eating at him, until he finally broke down and asked for clarification.    
  
“What did you mean by ‘both of us’?” Dil asked, still unwilling to look the captain’s direction. 

Tulosa hung his head.Just as he was preparing to clean below the hips without making the situation more awkward for the druid.  _ Good lady, he’s making this hard.  _ “Both of you what?”  The captain’s cock twitched.  _ That’s a loaded question. Don’t answer it.  _ He looked over his shoulder before he could stop himself, appreciating the way the water licked over Dil’s back, gaze trailing lower, thinking of the sounds from their room, Renawyn between them.    


A drop of precum called Tulosa's attention away and he shook his head. “Don’t answer that.”  _ Elune’s tits, no more conversation in here.  _ Tulosa skipped his waist entirely and washed his legs instead.

One of Dil's ears flicked up as he gripped himself and gave a stroke or two, ostensibly to clean the last of his dream’s evidence from his body. Squeezing his balls and tugging a bit after, he told his body ‘ _no_ , _not_ _now_ ’ to keep his semi from going full on hard. “I’ll ask Rena later,” he muttered. Then, turning under the water, he faced completely away from Tulosa instead of just a quarter turn toward the wall, rinsing off the last of the soap. 

Tulosa chuckled before he could stop himself, sarcasm clear in his voice. “That’s gonna go well. Just...ask me later.” He faced the wall, leaning against it and letting the water pour over his head. “When I’m not over here trying so very hard not to think of all this. And for your own benefit.” He rested his head on his arm against the wall.

Dil snorted and turned off his water. He  felt more like himself now that he’d taken a shower and been awake a while, not as cowed by the captain as when he first woke. And that perceived slight, meant or no, stung. “I was a bear, not a dog. I don’t need you to do anything for my own benefit.” 

“ _ Mmm _ . Druid’s got bite.” Tulosa looked blatantly over at Dil now, excess water dripping down the druid’s form, while his earlier skittish behavior fell away before irritation. The captain’s gaze started directly at Dil’s growing cock and up at his eyes, desire unhidden.    


With a lazy smirk and a hint of challenge in his expression, Tulosa turned around, not hiding anything this time. He leaned against the wall and faced Dil, hips cocked out slightly. “Sexy.” He lifted an eyebrow and did not look away, though his smirk grew wider.    


This display made it clear the ‘benefit’ was avoiding this very thing.

Dil’s ears pitched up, as high as they’d go, aggressive and alert as he took a step toward the captain. He stopped within a foot or so, well within arm’s reach, and looked over Tulosa just as blatantly, his own cock straining. He smirked as he realized out of the two, he was the larger male, and his ears dropped, taking on a more oblique slant, less aggressive and more interested. “Don’t you forget it,” he growled, rising to the challenge the captain presented. 

Tulosa straightened his own posture, looking ready for a tussle right in the shower. “How’s that bigger size of yours working with my engineer?”    


Dil scowled, and took another step forward, stiff-legged. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tulosa’s newly split attention stopped him, and he turned as the captain spoke.

“You’ve a good eye, Ren. Should’ve made you look out.” Tulosa straightened his posture completely.  
  
Rena, for her part, stared open-mouthed at the display, hand frozen where she had been rubbing at her ear. “I...What?” Her alarmed expression when she walked in and found Dil growling at the captain, shifted into near-speechless shock once she got a better look. 

Dil hesitated, dropping his aggressive stance as he turned toward her. “Renawyn,” he said, surprised to see her, and even more so barely concealed by the towel she clutched at her chest. The sight made his cock drip as his eyes flicked up and down her body. 

“My...ear’s all stopped up,” she said, more than a bit numb. A blush crept out over nearly every inch of her the longer she stared at both of them. Regardless, she continued having trouble making sense of what she saw, gaze falling on Dil’s precum, then flicking up to Tulosa’s face, then down to Tulosa’s erection. She looked down at herself next and backed up a step, willing her brain to function.   
  
Tulosa shook his head, turned away, and shut off his shower. “We were having a poorly timed discussion about dreams...and your mutual proclivity for including me in them.”

Dil didn't register Tulosa's words until the extra stream of water stopped pattering down. When his brain caught up with his ears, Dil set his jaw. He wanted to go to Rena's side, possibly give a pointed look at the captain.  A not so subtle ‘ _yet_ _I_ _still_ _got_ _the_ _girl_ ’ but her hesitation stopped him. He held out a hand to her instead, only taking a half step in her direction before gauging her response. 

“Dreams?” she echoed, staring at Tulosa’s back before looking over at Dil’s hand  _ I didn’t dream about….  _ Her mind interrupted that thought by completely registering the other side of his meaning, coupled with the state she found them in. “Mutual?” She looked up at Dil’s face with surprise and then over at the captain again.  _ Dil dreamt of Tully? _ She searched the druid’s eyes, showing no indication of backing away further.    


Dil's ears drooped from the perceived censure in her voice. He met her gaze with a lost and slightly embarrassed expression, all aggression from earlier gone now. "You were in it too," he said, continuing the day's theme of not thinking before he spoke. He dropped his hand and looked away.  _ Being a bear was so much easier….  _

He looked at the captain, successful in keeping his gaze above the other kaldorei’s waist, and hesitated leaving the room, unwilling to leave Rena and the captain alone. However, he also disliked the idea of walking back to his quarters, next to Tulosa, in what was sure to be awkward silence. 

Not that the showers weren't already drenched in this awkward silence, regardless.    


“For your own good, and hers.” Tulosa finally muttered, his back still turned. “Mind throwing me a towel, Ren?”   
  
Still a little disoriented by events, she held her own towel out, then clutched it back to herself almost immediately, not that it covered much. She glanced at Dil again before maneuvering around the corner and throwing a towel at Tulosa’s back. Afterward, she stayed on the other side of the wall, facing away from the both of them.     


“I...uh...your shower broken again?” she asked.  _ That’s a stupid question… _ . Not for the first time she wondered what was about to happen before she’d interrupted. Blushing furiously, she shook the resulting images from her head.   
  
Tulosa wrapped the towel around himself. When Dil started to leave, the captain motioned him to stay.

Dil paused, looking at him with an expression that could only be called glowering. However, with Rena just on the other side of the wall, he was loath to speak and resume hostilities. 

Tulosa ignored him, but went out of his way to leave by the entrance opposite Rena.

In a frustrated gesture, Dil spread his arms at the captain’s back. 

Both kaldorei halted entirely at Rena’s next words, caught off-guard, Tulosa not quite out of Dil's sight.  
  
“Do you two...want...um….” In the span of mere seconds she trailed off, flustered as Dil’s last comment sunk in. She finished with an entirely different sentence ending.  “...All three of us?” _In the same dream?_ More blushing followed as she arranged such an image in her mind. _Is Captain Tully gay? No...we were married...not married...OH...he must think I dreamt that. Joining Dil in the crew showers, not my brightest idea,_ she thought, ready for a cold shower now rather than the warm one she craved only moments ago.

Dil looked to Tully, the only one who could see her clearly. He's certain that's not what he wants, but... _ Why not both?  _ His traitorous mind suggested. Then it helpfully conjured up various scenarios and positions. His flagging erection gained a resurgence with a twitch at the change of blood pressure. 

Not incredibly helpful now, Tulosa looked back at Dil instead as though they might need a joint answer for that one. He noticed the druid’s renewed reaction and shook his head, adjusting his towel.  _ Guess that’s a yes...but is she ready for that?  _ He looked around the wall at Rena on the opposite end of it. His gaze traced over her figure, towel still clutched between her breasts and covering very little.    


“What the two of you want is more important.” Tulosa sighed and headed for the door. “I’ll be in my quarters.”


End file.
